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On LinkedIn, a Restoration Hardware employee states that their department (ocean freight operations) has a consistent annual growth of 12%. This is much lower than the company’s reported revenue COGS growth (20%+). I would note that RH has been increasingly sourcing more and more of its product from overseas:
- (EDIT: 4/2/2015) The 2011 S-1 states: Based on total dollar volume of purchases for fiscal 2010, approximately 73% of our products were sourced in Asia, the majority of which originated from China, 16% from the United States, 8% from Europe and the remainder from other regions.
- The FY2013 10-K states: Based on total dollar volume of purchases for fiscal 2013, approximately 69% of our products were sourced in Asia, the majority of which originated from China, 26% from the United States and the remainder from other regions.
- The FY2014 10-K states: Based on total dollar volume of purchases for fiscal 2014, approximately 84% of our products were sourced in Asia, the majority of which originated from China, 10% from the United States and the remainder from other regions.
Adjusting for the lower domestic sourcing would suggest that RH’s total overall buying may have grown at less than 12% annualized.
See the image below for what this person stated on LinkedIn:
I really hope I don’t get this employee fired for some reason. If you’re reading this, please do not ask management questions regarding this employee’s LinkedIn.
Some caveats and notes:
- It is possible that this employee is in charge of a slower-growing part of RH’s logistics. RH apparently has other international logistics leaders.
- Feus = Forty-foot equivalent units (Wikipedia).
- I have no way of verifying if the person on LinkedIn is not an impostor (though I would be extremely surprised if that was the case). Given that this employee’s name shows up in US ocean freight imports data, such a person with the same name likely works for RH. This person’s LinkedIn skill recommendations show other RH employees.
*Disclosure: Short RH.
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