Peloton deliveries hit by Brexit and port delays
UK consumers who have ordered Peloton exercise equipment may have a frustrating wait, the firm has warned.
Peloton said UK stock had been disrupted by Brexit while global shipping congestion had also led to "significant delays". The company has struggled to keep up with surging demand for its exercise machines during the pandemic. "These unpredictable delays have resulted in painful delivery reschedules for many people," it said. Peloton has been one of the big beneficiaries of lockdown as people have been looking for ways to exercise at-home. Sales of its technology-focused machines have soared in the past year as the pandemic shut gyms, but the company has struggled to keep up with demand for months, leading to long wait times and frustrated customers. Mr Foley, co-founder of the company, was very apologetic. "We are (and always have been) a company that is deeply committed to your happiness and we've fallen short of that in this regard," he said. Significant delays The company blamed the delays on "a global increase in shipping traffic" which "has added significant delays to all sorts of goods coming into ports around the world, including Peloton products". It also pointed to port congestion in Los Angeles and Long Beach, where shipping container volume has doubled in the last 12 months. Mr Foley added: "In Europe, despite our best efforts to prepare for the impact of Brexit on January 1st, we experienced additional disruption to inventory bound for the UK and Germany." He said the company was shipping some of its products by air instead of by sea to get them to customers, but added that because of its environmental concerns "we will not always fly bikes in airplanes over the ocean ". "These unprecedented measures are for these unprecedented times," Mr Foley said. Record sales On Thursday, Peloton reported record quarterly sales to 31 December of more than $1bn (£0.73bn) and raised its sales forecast for the full year to $4.08bn, up from a previous forecast of $3.90bn. It said connected fitness subscriptions - users who pay for classes on Peloton equipment - had jumped 134% to 1.67 million and would reach 1.98 million this year. Paid digital subscriptions - people who subscribe to classes on smartphones and other devices - soared by 472% to about 625,000. The company said it now has more than 4.4 million users. It is not only attracting more customers, but they are working out more. Peloton said that workouts on its equipment rose 303% to 98.1 million with an average of 21.1 workouts per month by each user, up from under 13 monthly workouts a year-ago.