SharkNinja CEO reveals what consumers are looking for now

SharkNinja made its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. SharkNinja's CEO and President Mark Barrocas tells Yahoo Finance Live that SharkNinja has "a great story to tell," highlighting the company's organic growth saying, "we've never acquired a dollar of revenue." When it comes to what consumers are looking for right now, Barrocas says they want multi-functionality, better performance, and value.

Video Transcript

- The IPO market has been showing signs of life again. Leading the charge has been Kenvue, Kava, Super Value Village, and Kodiak. Investors have been excited about them, although they haven't proven to hold much weight in the market. Yesterday, SharkNinja, a lifestyle and kitchen appliance producer, was another company that joined the growing list going public on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company spun off from JS Global with the household appliance company seeing $3.7 billion in net sales during 2022. Let's bring in now SharkNinja President and CEO Mark Barrocas to discuss with us. I was there yesterday for the festivities down at the New York Stock Exchange. Nice large crowd by the way. Why come public this way? It wasn't a traditional IPO. It's a spinoff. Just give us a little background.

MARK BARROCAS: Well, we've been a Hong Kong publicly listed company. We've been a subsidiary or Hong Kong publicly listed company JS Global. But we think SharkNinja has a great story to tell, and we think the New York Stock Exchange is the right place for us to tell that story. We're a highly diversified consumer products company with nearly $4 billion in revenue. We've got a great profitability profile and a strong demonstrated track record of organic growth. In fact, our business back in 2008, 15 years ago, was under a $200 million business. And during all of that period of time, all of our growth has been organic. We've never acquired a dollar of revenue.

- And so do you do you do your, I guess, inventing your product development? All of that is in house then? And let me use this opportunity to, you can tell us, what other products. Because I know the Shark. I know the Ninja. What else do you guys have?

MARK BARROCAS: So we go to market under two really well respected brands, as you said, and multi-billion dollar brands. Shark is a market leader in cleaning, floor care, home environment, and beauty. Ninja does just about everything in and around the kitchen and now goes outside the home with our outdoor cooking products. We're in 27 different product categories. We sell in 25 markets around the globe. All of our products are developed in house by our engineering team both in Boston, in London, and in China.

- I assume you have your finger on the pulse of the consumer here. I'm wondering, what trends have you noticed as we emerge from the pandemic? All kinds of things have gone on, but what are you seeing from your vantage point?

MARK BARROCAS: Well, look. I mean, we have a large team of ethnographic researchers, and that's a big driver of where our ideas come from is trying to identify either known or unknown consumer problems. And then we have a team of over 700 engineers around the world in all facets of engineering. Mechanical, electrical, software, mechatronics, app IoT, that's working to be able to develop innovative products to solve those problems.

Trends that we see, I mean, consumers want more multifunctionality. They want better performance. But they also want extraordinary value. And we think that SharkNinja really brings that whole combination to them.

- I'll say simplicity too. I happen to be a Ninja owner. And I appreciate the fact that I can get things done with one button if that's all I know. But tell us, what do you have on the horizon here? Anything exciting? You don't have to spill the beans on all the secrets, but areas that you might be going into new ones.

MARK BARROCAS: So I'll give you just a few examples. I mean, we launched into the beauty business. We have a product called the Shark FlexStyle hair styler. You can go on to TikTok or Instagram. I mean, it's doing fantastic and getting really great reviews. We entered into the outdoor cooking business with our Ninja wood fire products, both a grill and an oven. Again, giving you multifunctionality outside the home as well. Consumers had such a great experience with Ninja products in the home, they're now willing to give us a chance outside the home.

And just last week, we launched a new product called the Ninja Thirsti. It's an at home beverage maker. It makes still or sparkling drinks. It allows you to be able to dispense just a cup. And it makes 20 different types of drinks. So lots of different products and lots of different categories.

- All right. Want to end on a slightly serious note. We've talked about inflation, the potential for recession here a lot. Anything you're seeing that points to a slowdown in the consumer, or is the consumer just roaring strong still?

MARK BARROCAS: Well, look. I mean, we're obviously conscious of the inflationary challenges that the consumer has faced. And we do everything we can with our global supply chain to make sure that we're keeping prices down, and we're making affordable, accessible innovation for consumers.

Consumers are going to continue to expect more. If they're going to part with their hard earned money, it really needs to be a product that they love and that they think they're getting extraordinary value. And so we think if we can keep delivering it, they'll keep choosing Shark or Ninja.