![]() The company has several interested bidders, according to filings, but could also recapitalize its debt and keep going. Last month, Boca Raton, Fla.-based iPic said it missed a payment on its debt. ![]() Revenue growth decelerated in recent quarters, declining 2.6% in the third quarter of last year and 1.3% in the fourth before plummeting nearly 19% in the first three months of the year. The chain competes not only with restaurants, which are more established and better known, but also theaters, where customers are concerned more about the location and time of a showing than other factors such as brand name. The company delayed payments to vendors, lost discounts or ended up paying penalties, which increased costs further.Īnd then there is the competition. Over time, according to filings, iPic used more working capital and equity to fund construction projects on time, which hurt finances. Those costs increased “significantly” between 20, and delays hurt the company’s cash flow. It is currently trading at 52 cents.Ĭonstruction costs also hurt profitability, according to court documents. That IPO was a disaster for both the company, apparently, and investors: The stock was originally priced at $18.50 per share. What’s more, going public requires more operating costs to meet federal securities requirements. That was not enough to fund continuing development, the filing said. The chain initially wanted to raise $40 million, believing that it could raise that not just from customers but also from institutional investors.īut those large investors didn’t come through as promised, and the company ultimately raised just $17 million from an offering, according to bankruptcy court documents. ![]() In 2018, the company went public through a smaller, Regulation A+ initial public offering. “So when we had some erosion of attendance because of our nonreclining seats, those people left and went to other sites. “There was a time when we were the only ones that offered the comfort and convenience of recliners,” said Hamid Hashemi, CEO of iPic, during a conference call last year, according to financial services site Sentieo. And many of iPic’s seats did not recline or have wait service. Movie theaters eager to get consumers to ditch their sofas and big-screen televisions began adding them. Same-store sales rose in the double digits.īut then other theaters began to notice. And in subsequent years, new locations featured more recliners. Early in its 13-year history, iPic opened locations with two types of seating: premium seats with a table, and “Premium Plus” leather recliners with pillows, blankets, and waitstaff.Ībout a third of the seats were recliners.
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