Fabric and craft retail chain JOANN plans to go public, the company announced today in an S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
JOANN has grown during the pandemic amid a surge in arts and crafts among stay-at-home orders and social distancing trends. The chain added approximately 4,000 jobs during this time, according to the prospectus, and continues to expand its digital offerings and omnichannel platform.
“The industry is currently experiencing a significant acceleration for product demand in response to multiple secular themes that have been further solidified during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as heightened DIY customer behavior,” the filing stated.
The DIY trend grew in popularity as masks became a central part of people’s everyday wardrobes and consumers around the country began making and donating masks. JOANN sold mask-making supplies and also led several mask donation campaigns, including a “Masks for Schools” program and a “Make to Give” DIY campaign.
JOANN records over 69 million “addressable” customers, eight million of which were added since Feb. 1, 2020. The chain also experienced 38 percent growth in total comparable sales since May of 2020.
JOANN began as a fabrics store, but has ventured out into broader crafting products in the past few years. Still, the S-1 notes that many of its new customers first interact with JOANN when buying sewing machines and supplies. The retailer expects these customers, who are trending younger in age, to continue engaging with the store. “We estimate that a typical customer who purchases a sewing or craft technology machine will purchase an average of over $500 of our products in the year following their machine purchase,” per the filing.
Bank of America Securities and Credit Suisse will serve as JOANN’s lead book-running managers for the proposed IPO. The prospectus does not specify an IPO date or expected offering prices. The retail company would list under the symbol “JOAN” on Nasdaq.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has named the former director of its Whistleblower Office, Brian Young, as its director of enforcement.
The appointment was announced Friday (Feb. 14) by CFTC Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham, according to a CFTC press release. Young had been serving in an acting capacity since Jan. 22.
“He is a fearless leader that will build an even more impressive enforcement program that will stay true to the CFTC’s mission to protect the American public from fraudsters and scammers,” Pham said in the release. “I am confident that under Brian’s leadership, the CFTC will expand and scale our resources to help more victims than ever before and ensure the integrity of our markets in the name of justice.”
Young joined the CFTC as director of its Whistleblower Office in 2024, according to the release. During his first year in that role, Young oversaw a team that achieved an all-time high number of annual dispositions of whistleblower award applications.
Prior to joining the agency, Young was with the Department of Justice for nearly 20 years, most recently as acting director of litigation for the Antitrust Division, the release said.
Before that, Young served in various roles in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division, including chief of the Fraud Section’s Litigation Unit, per the release.
While at the Department of Justice, he successfully tried criminal fraud and manipulation cases in the CFTC’s markets, according to the release.
“I want to thank Acting Chairman Pham for her confidence in me and for her commitment to continuing the CFTC’s aggressive efforts to protect our global commodity markets from fraud, manipulation and other abusive practices,” Young said in the release.
The White House said in a Wednesday press release that it sent to the Senate nominations for Brian Quintenz to be chairman of the CFTC and a commissioner of the CFTC for a term expiring April 13, 2029.
Quintenz is a former commissioner of the CFTC and now works for the cryptocurrency unit at venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, PYMNTS reported Wednesday (Feb. 12).
The commission is expected to gain new powers over the cryptocurrency sector.