[Update as of June 26, 2024] Amazon aggregator Thrasio has emerged from bankruptcy a little over three months after filing for Chapter 11 earlier this year. Stephanie Fox, formerly COO and employee #1 at Thrasio has taken over as the company’s new CEO following the previously announced departure of former CEO Greg Greeley. Fox will now lead “revitalized” company on its path forward, which will prioritize top-performing brands, profitability, and product and channel expansion.
“We are emerging from Chapter 11 with a clean balance sheet, fresh capital and a renewed focus on our core business of building brands,” said Fox in a statement. “I have been with Thrasio since day one, and remain as excited about the opportunity ahead now as I was in 2018. Our team brings deep expertise in Amazon, ecommerce and brand development, and we boast a portfolio of beloved brands that continue to thrive both on and off Amazon. Over the past five years, we have matured and evolved significantly, and in this next chapter we will be laser-focused on profitability and sustainable growth. With the right team, systems and controls in place, we are well-positioned to lead in this space.”
Original story from March 4, 2024 begins-
Thrasio, one of the highest-profile Amazon “rollup” firms — so-called because they acquire Amazon third-party sellers en masse and roll them up into a larger entity to consolidate operations (and ideally scale profitability) — has filed for bankruptcy in an effort to “strengthen its financial position.”
Advertisement
Thrasio said it will continue normal business operations for its hundreds of Amazon FBA brands throughout the Chapter 11 process and that it has received $90 million in new financing from its lenders in order to see the company through what it hopes will be an expedited bankruptcy.
Times have changed dramatically from the ecommerce boom days of the pandemic, when private equity firms were snapping up successful third-party sellers hand over fist. Back in 2021, firms like Thrasio were able to buy these Amazon-based businesses for around 4X to 6X EBITDA and then turn that into a 15X to 25X valuation on the combined business.
But as the world has returned to normal and shoppers have returned to stores, the ecommerce bonanza has faded. And, as many aggregators like Thrasio have discovered, running hundreds or even just dozens of disparate businesses efficiently is hard, even when those businesses are based on a similar technical foundation.
In the heyday of Amazon aggregation Thrasio was one of the biggest players in the space, and the company remains one of the largest aggregators to date with as many as 200 brands under its belt. The company achieved unicorn status with a $1 billion valuation in 2020 and closed a $100 million funding round in April 2021. Now, nearly three years later, Thrasio is looking to rid itself of approximately $495 million of debt through restructuring.
“Over the past year, we have made significant progress transforming the business and advancing our objective to introduce hundreds of brands to millions of customers,” said Greg Greeley, CEO of Thrasio in a statement. “We are taking steps to build on this progress by strengthening our financial position and working with our lenders to support our future success. Thrasio is one of the largest third-party sellers on the Amazon marketplace, and with a strengthened balance sheet and new capital, we will be better equipped to support our brands, scale our infrastructure and enable future opportunities.”
