Peloton's had a rough year. After bringing on a new CEO, the company's latest attempt to reverse its downward spiral is to hire someone to fix one of its biggest issues: supply chain management.
Peloton announced Thursday that Andrew Rendich will join the company as its chief supply chain officer.
Rendich, who will start in the position next Wednesday, will oversee distribution, IT and member-support groups. Rendich joins the fitness company from Grove Collaborative, a home goods and products company, where he was the COO and will remain an adviser. Rendich formerly worked with Peloton CEO and President Barry McCarthy at Netflix. Rendich has 30 years of experience in supply chain, operations and customer service.
"Andy deeply understands how to run and execute a subscription model business," McCarthy said in a statement. "He has always put the customer first while delivering an excellent experience, a superpower that is central to Peloton's members-first mentality."
This is a key hire for Peloton, which mismanaged its supply of bikes and struggled to meet demand in the early days of the pandemic, when lockdowns and gym closures forced people to work out at home. The company acquired commercial gym equipment supplier Precor to bolster its manufacturing capabilities, but then produced so many bikes that they began to clutter warehouses as pandemic-induced orders died down.
Rendich steps into his new role as the company is decidedly struggling. The company's market value tumbled from $50 billion to less than $8 billion in a year as demand declined. The company temporarily halted production of its bikes in January, laid off 2,800 employees and replaced CEO John Foley with McCarthy, a veteran of Spotify and Netflix. Other executives, including Chief Operating Officer Mariana Garavaglia, Chief Business Officer Brad Olson and Chief Supply Chain Officer Jon Adee, have all left the company in recent months.
Rumors had previously swirled that companies such as Nike and Amazon were interested in buying Peloton, which McCarthy stamped out, saying he doesn't see a sale of the company in the "foreseeable future."
In a move to make its bikes more affordable and drive up demand, Peloton is working on a new subscription model in which customers will get a bike and subscription to classes for between $60 and $100 a month.
Peloton will also promote Shari Eaton from its senior vice president of People to chief people officer.