Here's 9 Things We Learned About Neiman Marcus From Its IPO Filing

The company, which has been privately-owned since 2005, shared new details about its business in a filing today.

By
Sapna Maheshwari
by Sapna Maheshwari

BuzzFeed News Reporter

The owner of Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Last Call stores filed to go public today.

Rick Wilking / Reuters

The company was bought out in 2005 by private-equity firms Warburg Pincus and TPG, which sold it off to Ares Management LLC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in 2013. It's still saddled with about $4.7 billion in long-term debt from the deals.

Proceeds from an IPO could help pay that off. Neiman Marcus Inc. also filed for an IPO in 2013, before agreeing to the second sale.

The IPO filing contained some interesting tidbits. Here's what we learned about Neiman Marcus and its market from the documents.

1. 38% of Neiman Marcus customers have a median household income of more than $200,000, and the average age of a customer is 51.

BAY ISMOYO / Getty Images

When it comes to total household net worth, more than 40% of its customers stack up at $1 million or higher. So it seems they can afford that "Needless Markup," as the company is jokingly called.

2. About 70% of ultra high net worth individuals in the U.S. live within 50 miles of a Neiman Marcus or Bergdorf Goodman store.

Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

The company gave this detail citing data from a third-party research provider called Wealth-X. Wealth-X defines the "ultra wealthy" as those with net assets of $30 million and above.

Neiman's filing touts the growing wealth of "ultra high net worth" households in the U.S. and "the increasing desire for luxury goods" in markets like Asia and the Middle East as catalysts for its growth.

3. Neiman brought in $4.8 billion in annual sales last year, far less than chains like Nordstrom and Macy's. But it only has 85 stores.

Chris Keane / Reuters

The company also has a web operation, and online sales accounted for almost a quarter of its business.

But those revenues aren't translating into profit: the company reported a $147.2 million loss for last year.

4. Sales associates who last more than a year at Neiman have an average tenure of nine years. And at least 40% of them each generated more than $750,000 in sales in the latest year.

Rachel Murray / Getty Images

The company says its associates "are trained in relationship selling, rather than transaction-based results."

Neiman says it was the first national retailer to provide its staff with smartphones and dedicated mobile apps for communicating with customers. That has "enabled our sales associates to strengthen relationships with our customers in real time through text messages and e-mails."

5. Neiman's stores in California, Florida, New York and Texas accounted for half of its revenue in its latest year.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

6. Neiman loyalty program members with "reward status" account for 40% of the company's annual revenue. These customers spend about 11 times more in a year than Neiman's other customers.

Adam Berry / Getty Images

7. Neiman said it can associate 90% of its overall revenue with specific customers.

Hazem Bader / AFP / Getty Images

The data is used to "enhance" and personalize interactions in stores and online and to gauge marketing effectiveness.

8. Neiman has recorded $16.7 million in expenses so far from a major cyber-attack it discovered last year.

Michael Bocchieri / Getty Images

Like so many other big American retailers, the company's payment system was hit by hackers, who it said may have accessed details of up to 350,000 debit and credit cards. It is still cooperating with the U.S. Secret Service's investigation into the attack.

9. There are about as many off-price Last Call stores (42) as full-line Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores (43.)

Rick Wilking / Reuters

Last Call, which sources end-of-season and post-season clearance from Neiman's and Bergdorf's, allow the company "to effectively manage our inventory while expanding our brand awareness to aspirational, price-sensitive customer."

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