SEC Form F-1 filed by Birkenstock Holding plc

SUMMARY

This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus and incorporated by reference herein. This summary may not contain all the information that may be important to you, and we urge you to read this entire prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein carefully, including the sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this prospectus, the sections entitled “Risk Factors,” “Business” and “Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” in our 2023 Annual Report incorporated by reference in this prospectus and our consolidated financial statements and notes to those consolidated financial statements incorporated by reference in this prospectus, before deciding to invest in our ordinary shares.

Who We Are

BIRKENSTOCK is a revered global brand rooted in function, quality and tradition dating back to 1774. We are guided by a simple, yet fundamental insight: human beings are intended to walk barefoot on natural, yielding ground, a concept we refer to as “Naturgewolltes Gehen.” Our purpose is to empower all people to walk as intended by nature. The legendary BIRKENSTOCK footbed represents the best alternative to walking barefoot, encouraging proper foot health by evenly distributing weight and reducing pressure points and friction. We believe our function-first approach is universally relevant; all humans — anywhere and everywhere — deserve to walk in our footbed.

From this insight, we have developed a broad, unisex portfolio of footbed-based products, anchored by our iconic Core Silhouettes, the Madrid, Arizona, Boston, Gizeh and Mayari. While these silhouettes drive consistent, high-visibility revenues and represent a significant portion of our overall business, we also continue to expand our extensive archive by extending our existing silhouettes and launching new styles. This expands our reach across price points, usage occasions and product categories. We incorporate distinctive design elements and develop new materials to create newness while staying true to our heritage and uncompromising quality standards.

We are German made. Our production capabilities reflect centuries-old traditions of craftsmanship and commitment to using only the highest quality materials. To ensure each product meets our rigorous quality standards, we operate a vertically integrated manufacturing base and produce all our footbeds in Germany. In addition, we assemble the vast majority of our products in Germany and produce the remainder elsewhere in the EU. We maintain strict control over our entire supply chain, responsibly sourcing materials that originate mainly from Europe.

As described by our Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Reichert, “Consumers buy our products for a thousand wrong reasons, but they all come back for the same reason:” for our functional proposition, enduring commitment to quality and the rich tradition of our Company which enables us to establish meaningful emotional connections with our consumers. The deep trust we create allows us to enjoy long-lasting relationships with our consumers — oftentimes spanning decades — as evidenced by findings from the Consumer Survey that revealed the average BIRKENSTOCK consumer in the U.S. owns 3.6 pairs. Through the strong reputation and universal appeal of our brand — enabling extensive word-of-mouth exposure and outsized earned media value — we have efficiently built a growing global fanbase of millions of consumers that uniquely transcends geography, gender, age and income.

We reach these consumers around the world through a multi-channel “engineered distribution” model, which balances the growing demand for our products and our constrained supply capacity to create scarcity in the market. We strategically allocate our products between our wholesale partners in the B2B channel, which we have been optimizing in recent years, and our rapidly growing DTC channel. As a result, we drive consistently robust revenue growth and operating margins, achieve excellent sell-through rates and deepen our direct connections with our consumers. In fiscal 2023, we generated revenues of €1,491.9 million, gross profit margin of 62.1%, net profit of €75.0 million, Adjusted net profit of €207.2 million, net profit margin of 5.0%, Adjusted net profit margin of 13.9%, Adjusted EBITDA of €482.7 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin of 32.4%, while selling 30.7 million units.

What We Stand For

Our core values of Function, Quality and Tradition influence everything we do and underpin our brand’s deep cultural relevance that has stood the test of time. For decades, BIRKENSTOCK has attracted independent thinkers and transcended prevailing style norms, remaining committed to our values, even as the global zeitgeist has evolved around and moved toward us. In the 1960s and 1970s, the global peace movement and hippies adopted BIRKENSTOCK, wearing our Madrid, Arizona and Boston, as part of their celebration of freedom and free-spiritedness. In the 1980s, the green movement adopted BIRKENSTOCK, proudly wearing our products for our ethical approaches to production and consumption. In the 1990s, inspired by the feminism movement, more women wore BIRKENSTOCKs to free themselves from long-standing fashion norms that required wearing painful high heels and other constricting footwear. Today, consumers turn to BIRKENSTOCK in their search for healthy, high-quality products and as a rejection of formal dress culture. By remaining true to our values of Function, Quality and Tradition, BIRKENSTOCK has endured across generations.

Function

Our proprietary footbed — the result of successive innovations, beginning in the late 19th century with the invention of the contoured shoe last, which reflects the anatomy of the human foot — represents the foundation of our brand and products. The functional nature of and growing usage occasions for BIRKENSTOCK products enable the universality of our brand, allowing us to serve every human regardless of geography, gender, age and income. At its core, the BIRKENSTOCK footbed promotes “Naturgewolltes Gehen”:

Every foot employs 26 bones, 33 muscles and over 100 tendons and ligaments in walking. Improper footwear can cause friction, pain, injury and poor posture, among other ailments. Our anatomically shaped BIRKENSTOCK footbed provides natural support and stimulation, promoting even weight distribution, fully supported arches and no unnatural pressure points from heel to toe. Orthopedic theory suggests the benefits of walking barefoot on natural yielding ground are far reaching, including pain reduction in the foot and throughout the body, improved mobility, and natural posture, since the foot is kept in its natural state. By mimicking the effects of natural yielding ground (“footprint in the sand”), the “System Birkenstock” leans on the benefits of this phenomenon, attempting to enable

walking as intended by nature. The inherent functionality of our products enables BIRKENSTOCK to serve a distinct purpose for consumers.

As illustrated below, the Original BIRKENSTOCK footbed is comprised of several distinctive components:

Quality

We believe how things are made matters as much as the product itself. We build BIRKENSTOCK products to be long-lasting, durable and repairable, a distinctive approach in the market today. We never compromise on material quality; for example, our uppers are made of leathers of the highest quality (i.e., 2.8-3.0 mm thick leather). Our materials and components are primarily sourced from suppliers in Europe and processed under the highest environmental and social standards in the industry by operating state-of-the-art scientific laboratories for materials testing. Furthermore, by vertically integrating our manufacturing operations in the EU — one of the safest and most regulated manufacturing environments in the world — we maintain a high degree of control over the quality and craftsmanship of our products, ensuring a consistent consumer experience.

Consumers recognize BIRKENSTOCK for its superior product quality. According to the Consumer Survey, we outperform our peers — on a statistically significant level — on measures of material quality, construction and craftsmanship, as well as durability. As a result, the loyalty of BIRKENSTOCK consumers is unparalleled, with some consumers keeping pairs for multiple decades through careful maintenance and repair.

Tradition

Honoring our heritage represents the cornerstone of our culture. We feel a profound responsibility to protect and live up to our treasured tradition — built over the last two and a half centuries — of crafting functional, high-quality products. This deep respect for our history continuously guides our actions, compelling us to emphasize our values across all aspects of our business.

While our family tradition of shoemaking can be traced back to 1774, the evolution of our brand gained momentum in the early 20th century with our development of the footbed in 1902. We invented the word “Fussbett,” or “footbed,” and this discovery laid the groundwork for what became the “System Birkenstock,” a doctrine and practice of orthopedic principles, built around “Naturgewolltes Gehen,” that still guides us today. The footbed remains the guiding principle for everything we do and the platform we use to explore new product categories. It reminds us to develop products that make our consumers’ lives better, embedding function, quality and purpose in everything we make. The philosophy of the “System Birkenstock” grounds our approach to shoemaking to this day.

Where We Are Today

Over a decade ago, the Birkenstock family brought in its first outside management team, commencing the present era of BIRKENSTOCK. Under the leadership and vision of Oliver Reichert, first as a General Manager in 2009 and then as the Chief Executive Officer beginning in 2013, we have transformed our business from a family-owned, production-oriented company into a global, professionally managed enterprise committed to growing our brand. In the current era, we have built on our legacy while continuing to revolutionize processes and strategies to unleash our global potential, growing revenues at a 20% CAGR from fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2023.

Note: See “Presentation of Financial and Other Information — Financial Statements.”

We use a highly intentional “celebrate the archive, build the archive” approach to product architecture and innovation across our expanding portfolio of over 700 silhouettes. We incorporate our legendary footbed across all silhouettes, several of which have developed significant global recognition and acclaim of their own. Our top five silhouettes collectively generated over 75% of our annual revenues in fiscal 2023. We continually reinterpret or “celebrate” these timeless, iconic silhouettes through makeovers and adaptations, enabling us to drive consistent, recurring growth with minimal risk. Alongside our classics, we have built our extensive archive by innovating new silhouettes; nine of the top 20 products in fiscal 2023 represent new styles that we have introduced since fiscal 2017. In particular, we have focused on expanding our closed-toe silhouette assortment — which represented over 25% of revenues in fiscal 2023 — to enable us to address additional usage occasions as well as balance seasonality.

Our commitment to creating functional, purpose-driven products with the highest integrity has enabled us to build a strong brand reputation with universal appeal. In addition, powerful secular trends — an increased focus on health, the casualization of daily life, the breakthrough of modern feminism and the rise of purpose-led, conscious consumption — have converged around BIRKENSTOCK and will continue to fuel our brand relevance and reach for the next 250 years. We strive to match our universal appeal with democratic access to products; we offer our adults unisex products across a broad range of prices, from a retail entry price point of €45 for our EVA styles to over €1,600 for our highest-end collaborations.

The deep connections we build with our diverse, global fan base engender profound trust, high levels of loyalty and unparalleled word-of-mouth endorsement. In a recent Consumer Survey, approximately 70% of our existing U.S. consumers indicated they had purchased at least two pairs of BIRKENSTOCKs, with the average U.S. consumer owning 3.6 pairs. In that same Consumer Survey, nearly 90% of recent purchasers indicated a desire to purchase again and over 40% of consumers indicated they did not even consider another brand when last purchasing BIRKENSTOCK, a testament to our category ownership.

Given the increasing relevance and strength of our brand, demand for our products has historically exceeded supply. As a consequence, we have spent the past decade refining our engineered distribution model through which we mindfully and strategically allocate product across channels and regions. We have consolidated control over our brand globally by converting distributor markets, rationalizing wholesale distribution to focus on strategic accounts that support our brand positioning and reach, and investing in our DTC business, which has grown at a 40% CAGR between 2018 and 2023. We allocate our finite production capacity globally, creating scarcity in the market and facilitating strong control over our brand, as well as predictable, consistent growth. We stick to this strategy with great discipline, even when expanding production capacity. Our strongest, most developed regions are the Americas and Europe, which represented 54% and 35% of revenues in fiscal 2023, respectively. Our APMA region has demonstrated considerable growth potential, which historically has not been fully realized because of deliberate decisions to prioritize the Americas and Europe due to finite supply. The expansion of our production capacity provides us with the bandwidth necessary to serve our customers and meet the demand for our products in underpenetrated markets and categories.

Recent Financial Performance

Our powerful business model and consistent execution have delivered continuous top-line growth and an expanding margin profile. Our financial performance reflects the strong demand for our brand and the benefits of our engineered distribution model that delivers the right product for the right channel at the right price point. This approach enables us to enjoy a rare combination of consistent, predictable growth and high levels of profitability, providing us with significant flexibility to invest in our operations and growth initiatives.

This strategy has resulted in:

This strategy has also yielded strong results in the most recent six months ended March 31, 2024, where we have observed:

Note: See “Presentation of Financial and Other Information — Financial Statements.” Adjusted Gross Profit and Adjusted EBITDA are non-IFRS measures. For reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS measure, see “Summary Consolidated Financial Information—Non-IFRS Financial Measures."

Our Addressable Market

Inspired by “Naturgewolltes Gehen,” we construct our products to empower all humans to walk as nature intended. We believe this function-first ethos limits the reach of our products only by the global population.

Our core opportunity lies in deploying our iconic footbed across the broader footwear market globally, including in our largest markets of North America and Europe, as well as newer markets in Asia and the Middle East. Beyond geographical expansion, significant market share opportunity exists in our established and new product categories.

Global Footwear Market

The global footwear industry is a large and fragmented market. We believe there is ample whitespace to continue growing the BIRKENSTOCK brand. We expect to capture market share globally, particularly in Asia Pacific, where we are meaningfully underpenetrated.

We believe we are uniquely positioned to win share in the large and growing global footwear market given our commitment to delivering superior orthopedic functionality in support of the following key enduring consumer megatrends:

Growing Preference for Healthy Products

Consumers prioritize purchases that benefit their overall health as they become aware of the negative effects of wearing unsupportive footwear. Our footbed-based products meet inherent consumer demand through their functionality and encouragement of the natural walking motion and proper foot health.

Casualization Across Usage Occasions

Over the last generation, the use of formal footwear has declined as a result of the ongoing shift towards casual dress and rise of sneaker culture, both trends accelerated by COVID-19. We find ourselves at a nexus of these changing consumer behaviors as consumers increasingly free themselves from long-standing fashion norms, seeking more functional footwear and apparel choices across usage occasions. This enduring trend also coincides with the shift towards healthy products as consumers seek alternatives to traditional work and other non-casual footwear options that do not promote or negatively impact foot health.

Breakthrough of Modern Feminism

The ongoing evolution and expansion of the role of women in society continues to drive meaningful shifts in their preferences in footwear and apparel. While trends in fashion come and go, we believe women’s increasing preference for functional apparel and footwear has and will prove secular in nature. As a brand that has long stood for functionality, we believe this ongoing tailwind will continue to drive relevance and growth for the BIRKENSTOCK brand.

Appreciation and Affinity for Heritage and Craftsmanship

We believe consumers increasingly value brands that have rich traditions, have clarity in their purpose and take significant responsibility for their operations. We have observed these trends across various consumer industries, including luxury leather goods and ready-to-wear clothing, watches and personal care products, among others. We believe BIRKENSTOCK’s functional, purpose-led brand, uncompromising commitment to quality and centuries-old crafting traditions align well with the ongoing shift towards brands with authentic heritages and craftsmanship.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe the following strengths are central to the power of our brand and business model:

Purpose Brand Built Around our Legendary Footbed and Products

An Orthopedic Tradition

The heart of our brand is the footbed, which forms the core of our own orthopedic methodology, the “System Birkenstock.” The benefits of our system are supported by decades of research, podiatrist recommendations and consumer loyalty. Our purpose to empower all people to walk as intended by nature has created an enduring connection with our consumers, who recognize us for functionality, craftsmanship, German engineering,

uncompromising quality and a differentiated product experience. This authentic connection with our consumers positions BIRKENSTOCK at the center of a shift toward conscious, responsible and health-oriented consumption instead of “fast fashion” or trend-chasing.

Much of our success can be traced back to our long history of product innovations, including the contoured shoe last, footbed and footbed sandal. We outline our groundbreaking innovations below:

Category-Defining, Universally Relevant Silhouettes

While these innovations started orthopedically in nature, we have since launched several distinctive, instantly recognizable silhouettes that blend the functionality of our legendary footbed with timeless aesthetics. Many of these silhouettes — including our Core Silhouettes, the Madrid, Arizona, Boston, Gizeh and Mayari — have come to define and become synonymous with their respective categories, resulting in a distinct competitive advantage for our brand. All but one — the Mayari — have been in the market for over 40 years and continue to attract significant attention today. From the beginning, these silhouettes have been conceptualized, promoted and sold as unisex products, further supporting our fundamental purpose and driving mass appeal of the brand. These top selling models undergo regular seasonal makeovers and serve as the “canvas” for many of our collaborations created within our 1774 premium line, generating newness while allowing us to celebrate this core collection. Our Core Silhouettes have demonstrated consistent, recurring double-digit growth.

Proven Innovation Strategy

We have developed an extensive archive of over 700 silhouettes through our differentiated innovation engine. We approach product innovation through two primary lenses: (1) “celebrating the archive” by utilizing distinct design elements to modify existing silhouettes and introduce newness in a low-risk manner and (2) “building the archive” by leveraging our footbed as the development platform, enabling us to create new products from the “inside-out.”

Our approach leverages our product archive, market insights and whitespace analysis to identify areas where we can create trends from within and export those to the market through a proven roadmap of product development, demand creation and engineered distribution.

Celebrate the Archive

We routinely update our Core Silhouettes and other existing silhouettes by adjusting parameters such as color, materials and other details (e.g., buckles) to create newness and strategically extend their reach. For example, we have expanded the Arizona silhouette across price points and usage occasions, adding a water-friendly variant utilizing EVA, while also broadening the Arizona’s appeal through collaborations. This approach continuously infuses the brand with newness while undertaking minimal risk. As a result, revenues from the Arizona silhouette have grown at a CAGR of over 20% between fiscal 2018 and 2023.

Build the Archive

We also consistently build our archive by introducing new silhouettes developed around our celebrated footbed. Given the functional nature of our products and the loyalty BIRKENSTOCK consumers have for their footbeds, we have successfully expanded our assortment across new silhouettes and product categories. The success of this approach can be seen in the popularity of our recent launches; new silhouettes introduced since fiscal 2017 represented nine of the top 20 selling products in fiscal 2023. Furthermore, we have focused on the significant opportunity in closed-toe silhouettes, which have grown to over 25% of revenues in fiscal 2023, supported beyond our classic Boston by silhouettes such as the Zermatt, Buckley and Bend. This approach has enabled us to expand our brand reach across seasons and usage occasions, as well as drive growth through higher ASPs. Launched in 2020, the Bend sneaker exemplifies the success of our approach to building the archive in new, strategically important categories, with Bend revenues growing over one-third between fiscal 2022 and 2023.

Go-Forward Product Strategy

Looking ahead, we will continue to grow our Core Silhouette collections through low-risk newness while also deploying our footbed across more product categories and usage occasions. Specifically, we expect to refine existing silhouettes and create new silhouettes that incorporate new materials and production techniques, such as PU direct injection, to specifically address identified consumer needs and broaden our product range across usage occasions. For example, our PU technology will enable extensive innovation in outsoles, allowing us to create products tailored for active and outdoor and professional usage occasions. To further strengthen our innovation capabilities and extend our functional leadership, we formed a dedicated biomechanics team and created a laboratory for new technical and materials innovations in 2018.

Global Fan Community Enabling Efficient Demand Creation

Broad and Democratic Fan Base

We serve a global community of millions of highly engaged consumers, who we attract with our function-first collection of high-quality footwear. Our fans, many of whom have been with us for decades, are enthusiastic, loyal, quality seekers across all aspects of society, including doctors, chefs, adventurers, professional athletes and models on the runways of Paris Fashion Week. We attract a diverse range of consumers that transcends geography, gender, age and income.

Source: Consumer Survey; geographical split based on share of fiscal 2022 revenues

Our holistic approach to foot health serves as the foundation for a globally accessible, relevant and democratized brand experience that serves a broad consumer base across usage occasions and price points. We have demonstrated success across a broad price range, from our EVA styles, which have a RSP starting at €45, to our 1774 collection styles and collaborations, which have a RSP of upwards of €1,600.

Unparalleled Consumer Engagement and Loyalty

Our diverse set of consumers discover our brand in many ways, sometimes not immediately for the inherent orthopedic benefits, but become loyal fans through their continued use of our products. According to the Consumer

Survey, the average BIRKENSTOCK consumer in the U.S. owns 3.6 pairs of our product today, reflecting the enthusiasm with which consumers engage with our brand. In addition, 86% of recent BIRKENSTOCK purchasers indicated a desire to purchase again. Anecdotally, “Birkenstories” of obsessive fan loyalty are plentiful, with grandparents passing on the tradition of BIRKENSTOCK to future generations and others building collections of BIRKENSTOCKs over time.

Efficient Demand Creation

The deep connection consumers feel with our beloved brand leads to significant word-of-mouth exposure and extensive, high-quality earned media, enabling highly efficient marketing spend. According to the Consumer Survey, nearly 90% of BIRKENSTOCK buyers come to us through unpaid channels, with the top three sources of awareness being: (1) heard about it from a friend, (2) saw someone wearing it and (3) growing up with it. Our consumers’ love for BIRKENSTOCK and their strong desire to organically promote the brand are further demonstrated by our NPS of 55%.

Furthermore, we amplify BIRKENSTOCK in the cultural zeitgeist through calculated demand creation strategies, including through creative content developed by our content house as well as through strategic product collaborations led by our 1774 office in Paris. Our unique brand, iconic footbed and instantly recognizable aesthetics have generated significant unsolicited attention from well-known brands seeking to collaborate with us. This has enabled us to partner with diverse brands such as Rick Owens, Stüssy, DIOR and Manolo Blahnik to create products that activate specific consumer groups and markets for BIRKENSTOCK. We benefit from the unpaid advocacy and support that is the natural byproduct of celebrities, public figures and other influential fans who are frequently seen wearing our products.

Engineered Distribution Approach

Complementary Multi-Channel Strategy

We optimize growth and profitability through a complementary, multi-channel distribution strategy for DTC and B2B. We operate our channels synergistically, utilizing the B2B channel to facilitate brand accessibility while fully engaging consumers in our DTC channel, which offers our complete product range and access to our most desired and unique silhouettes. Across both channels, we execute a strategic allocation and product segmentation process, often down to the single door level, to ensure we sell the right product in the right channel at the right price point. This approach employs key levers such as the expansion of our DTC channel, market conversions from third-party distributors, optimization of our wholesale partner network, increased overall share of premium products and strategic pricing. This process allows us to manage the finite nature of our production capacity, with a rigorous focus on control of our brand image and on profitability. As a result, we drive top-line growth and protect margins, prevent brand dilution and deepen our connection to consumers.

We pioneered this engineered distribution model in our U.S. market, ultimately helping drive a 31% revenue CAGR in the U.S. between fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2023. This transformative approach now serves as a blueprint for all our regions, where we have strategically converted from third-party distributors to owned distribution, accelerated DTC penetration, strategically expanded our retail footprint and increased our share of closed-toe and other high ASP products. Building on our success in the U.S., we have taken back distribution in key markets, including the UK, France, Canada, Japan and South Korea, reducing the share of business in third-party distribution from 32% of revenues in fiscal 2018 to 13% in fiscal 2023. Our strongest, most developed regions are the Americas, which accounted for 54% of revenues in fiscal 2023, and Europe, which accounted for 35% of revenues, while APMA represented 10% of revenues.

Balanced Shift Towards DTC

Our DTC footprint promotes direct consumer relationships and provides access to BIRKENSTOCK in its purest form. We have grown DTC revenues at a 40% CAGR between 2018 and 2023 as part of our strategy to increase DTC penetration. Our DTC channel enables us to express our brand identity, engage directly with our global fan base,

capture real-time data on customer behavior and provide consumers with unique product access to our most distinctive styles. Additionally, our increasing levels of organic demand creation, together with higher ASPs, support an attractive profitability outlook in the DTC channel, which reached a 40% share of revenues in fiscal 2023, up from 18% in fiscal 2018.

Since 2016, we have invested significantly in our online platform to support the penetration of our DTC channel, establishing our own e-commerce sites in more than 30 countries with ongoing expansion into new markets. In addition, as of March 31, 2024, we operated a network of approximately 57 owned retail stores, complementing our e-commerce channel with the live experience of our best product range. The largest concentration of our retail locations is in Germany, where we operated 21 locations. We have recently embarked on a disciplined strategy of opening new retail stores and store formats to grow our brand awareness and give consumers a 360 degree brand experience. Our latest openings are Miami, Soho and Brooklyn in New York City, Venice Beach in Los Angeles, London, Cologne, Tokyo, Singapore, Mumbai and Delhi.

Intentional Wholesale Partnerships

Our wholesale strategy is defined by intentionality in partner selection, identifying the best partners in each segment and price point. We segment our wholesale product line availability into specific retailer quality tiers, ensuring we allocate the right product to the right channel for the right consumer. For example, we limit access to our premium 1774 and certain collaboration products to a curated group of brand partners.

For our wholesale partners, we are a “must carry” brand based on the enthusiasm with which our consumers pursue our products. We believe that the BIRKENSTOCK brand is consistently amongst the top performers in sell-through in our core categories at most of our retail partners. We generate significantly more demand from existing and prospective wholesale customers than we can supply, putting us in an enviable position where we can create scarcity in the market and obtain consistently favorable economic terms on wholesale distribution. The early placement of wholesale orders approximately six months in advance greatly aids in our production planning and allocation. In addition, sell-through transparency from important wholesalers provides real-time insight into the overall market and inventory dynamics.

During fiscal 2023, we worked with approximately 6,000 carefully selected wholesale partners in over 85 countries, ranging from orthopedic specialists to major department stores, to high-end fashion boutiques. As of March 31, 2024, our strategic partners also operated approximately 260 mono-brand stores to provide our consumers a multi-channel experience in select markets.

Vertically Integrated Manufacturing

A key differentiator of BIRKENSTOCK is our vertically integrated manufacturing which creates strong competitive and operational advantages in an industry that has largely been offshoring production since the 1980s. During fiscal 2023, we assembled the vast majority of our overall products and produced 100% of our footbeds in our factories in Germany, with supplemental component manufacturing in Portugal. These facilities are critical to delivering the high-quality products our brand promises and our consumers expect. With nearly every silhouette requiring over 50 hands to complete, our skilled workers ensure we complete production in rigorous accordance with centuries-old know-how and craftsmanship. Inside our factories, most of our machines and automation are custom-made and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. For example, if no standard equipment is available on the market to fulfill these goals, we design and build our own proprietary machines with hand-picked suppliers.

Our approach to owned manufacturing ensures we produce our products to the highest quality standards, that we remain deliberate in the environmental resources we use and that we invest appropriately in innovation to support the brand’s continued growth. Our consumers can take comfort in that we engineer and produce 100% of our footwear in the EU, one of the safest and most regulated markets in the world. Furthermore, we source most of our raw materials from across Europe in compliance with strict quality, social and environmental standards based on industry best practices. We believe this vertical integration creates a unique degree of strategic control, further

supported by robust contingency measures and the benefits of sourcing redundancy and diversity across multi-supplier relationships to ensure continuity of operations and flow of product.

We have recently expanded, and continue to expand, our owned manufacturing footprint globally. Our newest factory in Pasewalk, Germany began operations in September 2023, expanding our popular EVA and PU product capacity while freeing up incremental capacity for cork latex products in our other factories to further meet the strong demand for our brand. We are currently expanding our component manufacturing facility in Arouca, Portugal as well as our manufacturing facility in Görlitz, Germany. Between October 1, 2021 and the end of fiscal 2024, we will have spent approximately €180 million in expanding our production capacity. We expect to double our production capacity versus fiscal 2022 over the next several years as the result of our investments, including expected capital expenditures of approximately €100 million for fiscal 2024. We expect capital expenditures will continue to decline in absolute terms over the next several years. We remain committed to our policy that all footbed production and engineering take place in Germany and that all final assembly occurs in the EU to ensure the highest quality products are manufactured according to centuries-long tradition.

Passionate and Proven Management Team

Our brand’s ethos is rooted in an enduring commitment to the highest standards of corporate citizenship that encompasses a dedication to our employees and to the highest quality and broad support of innovation and creativity. Our leadership team remains committed to supporting a centuries-old legacy of aligning our corporate ethos to actions that support positive social, economic and environmental outcomes for both the localities in which we operate and our global community.

We benefit from the industry expertise and know-how of our passionate, experienced, visionary and proven senior management team led by Oliver Reichert, our Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Erik Massmann, our Chief Financial Officer; Markus Baum, our Chief Product Officer; Klaus Baumann, our Chief Sales Officer; David Kahan, our President Americas; Mehdi Nico Bouyakhf, our President Europe; Jochen Gutzy, our Chief Communications Officer; Christian Heesch, our Chief Legal Officer; and Mark Jensen, our Chief Technical Operations Officer who together have an average of more than 20 years of industry experience. The executive leadership team is executing on a bold vision

to continue to unlock the power and significance of BIRKENSTOCK, which, through fiscal 2023, has grown revenues at a 20% CAGR since fiscal 2014, after Oliver Reichert took over as Chief Executive Officer. This has been accomplished while significantly expanding profitability through greater control over our brand, increased DTC share and operational efficiencies.

For a description of the challenges we face and the limitations of our business and operations, see “—Risk Factors Summary” and “Risk Factors.”

Our Growth Strategies

We believe we have only just begun to unlock the power of our profound transformation and realize the full global potential of BIRKENSTOCK. We estimate our share of the massive €340 billion global footwear industry to be less than one percent, presenting substantial opportunity for further growth. We believe we are well-positioned to significantly expand our market share and drive sustainable growth and profitability through the following pillars, each of which represents a continuation of the proven strategies we have been executing over the past decade.

Expand and Enhance the Product Portfolio

We will continue to expand our product archive through our “celebrate and build” approach to innovation, entering into new usage occasions while investing in categories we serve today through new and innovative offerings. We intend to diversify our product portfolio, strengthen loyalty with consumers who already love BIRKENSTOCK, drive higher penetration in our existing markets and channels and expand our reach and appeal across new consumers, geographies and usage occasions. Through the broad application of the BIRKENSTOCK footbed, we intend to develop our product offering through the following strategies:

Drive Engineered Distribution on a Global Scale

We will continue to leverage our engineered distribution approach to strategically allocate our production capacity across channels, regions and categories in a manner that supports our continued success. Specifically, we aim to drive growth across regions by continuing to operate our proven playbook in the U.S. and Europe, where we have significantly grown our DTC channel while optimizing our B2B presence with wholesale partners who support our brand positioning.

Our DTC channel has expanded from 18% of revenues in fiscal 2018 to 40% of revenues in fiscal 2023. We expect that future DTC growth will be fueled by both e-commerce and retail. In e-commerce, our growth will be supported by new online store openings and new customer attraction, and fueled by increased member growth. In retail, we plan to pursue disciplined, strategic additions to our retail footprint given our relatively limited presence today of approximately 57 owned stores, 21 of which are in Germany. We expect DTC penetration will increase slightly in the coming years as we balance DTC growth with continued expansion with new and existing strategic wholesale partners globally.

We have extensive whitespace to grow within and outside of our largest geographies, the U.S. and Europe. We believe there are still sizable growth opportunities in key developed markets where the brand has a presence but remains significantly underpenetrated, including the UK, France, Southern Europe and Canada.

As we ramp up our production capacity, we will unlock the large growth potential of the APMA region, which has generated significant latent demand that we have been unable to fulfill in recent years given more limited supply. Our targeted growth strategies will build upon our growing popularity in the region’s emerging markets, including China and India, where our brand is nascent, and in countries such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, where we have a more established presence and brand awareness.

Educate Fans on Our Brand Purpose and Grow the BIRKENSTOCK Fan Base

We will continue to educate consumers globally about the advantages of BIRKENSTOCK products. We believe consumers become evangelists for our brand when they experience the merits of our superior functional design. The function of our products and the power of our brand has enabled us to build our Company largely through organic, unpaid sources, including word-of-mouth, repeat buying, earned media, high profile influencer support and our 1774 collaborations office. These organic factors support a virtuous cycle of consumer consideration, trial, conversion, repeat purchase and recommendation. Our recently established BIRKENSTOCK content house was created to produce powerful stories of BIRKENSTOCK’s craftsmanship, fan love and other core values across various social media platforms, providing powerful organic vehicles to engage with and attract new fans. We will further engage with our loyal fanbase through new formats in community activations and retail, strengthening our fan engagement through the introduction of temporary and ambassador led retail concepts, focusing on a small footprint of stores operated in partnership with local entrepreneurs who will serve as brand ambassadors by virtue of their professions, pursuits or social media presences. Additionally, our newly launched BIRKENSTOCK membership program, which offers exclusive access to products and other unique benefits, will serve as a principal tool for driving increased engagement with new and existing consumers in the future.

While our brand has achieved substantial traction globally and those who have experienced our products demonstrate strong loyalty, our presence remains relatively nascent in many of our markets. Our brand awareness outside of Germany and the United States remains well below that of our most established markets and of other leading footwear brands, providing us with a clear runway for growth. According to the Consumer Survey, aided brand awareness, which we define as consumer awareness about the brand when specifically asked about the brand, in the United States is 68%. We believe increasing consumer awareness of our brand, the functional benefits of our products and our constantly evolving product offering will generate substantial growth as we introduce new consumers to our brand and convert those who are aware of the brand into consumers.

Invest in and Optimize the Company to Support the Next Generation of Growth

We will continue to invest in our people and our manufacturing and supply chain to support future growth. We will also seek operational improvements to drive efficiencies and increase the speed and flexibility of our operations.

Recent Developments

On May 28, 2024, Birkenstock Limited Partner S.à r.l., as the company, Birkenstock Group B.V. & Co. KG and Birkenstock US BidCo Inc., as borrowers, and the other loan parties thereto entered into the Term and Revolving Facilities Agreement with Goldman Sachs Bank USA, as agent and security agent, and the lenders party thereto, which includes a Euro denominated term loan facility (the “New EUR Term Loan”) in an aggregate principal amount of €375.0 million and a USD denominated term loan facility in an aggregate principal amount equal to $280.0 million (the “New USD Term Loan” and together with the New EUR Term Loan, the “New Term Loans”). A euro denominated multicurrency revolving facility in an aggregate principal amount of €225.0 million was established alongside the New Term Loans under the Term and Revolving Facilities Agreement (the “Revolving Facility” and together with the New Term Loans, the “Term and Revolving Facilities”). The Term and Revolving Facilities have an original maturity of February 28, 2029 and the proceeds of the New Term Loans will be applied towards refinancing in full the term loans under the Senior Term Facilities Agreement. The Senior Term Facilities Agreement will be fully cancelled upon the refinancing thereof, which is expected to take place in the Company's fourth quarter ending September 30, 2024 (the date of such refinancing being, the “Refinancing Date”). The ABL Facility will also be cancelled on the Refinancing Date. The Revolving Facility may be drawn on and from the Refinancing Date and is available for utilization until January 26, 2029.

Corporate Structure

A simplified organizational chart showing certain legal entities within our corporate structure is set forth below (all subsidiaries are, directly or indirectly, 100% owned by Birkenstock Holding plc):

Corporate Information

Birkenstock Holding plc was formed on February 19, 2021 as BK LC Lux Finco 2 S.à r.l., a Luxembourg private limited liability company. On April 25, 2023, we changed our name from BK LC Lux Finco 2 S.à r.l. to Birkenstock Group Limited and converted (by way of re-domiciliation) the legal form of our Company to a Jersey private company. On July 12, 2023, we changed our name from Birkenstock Group Limited to Birkenstock Holding Limited. On October 4, 2023, we changed the legal status of our Company to a Jersey public limited company and our name from Birkenstock Holding Limited to Birkenstock Holding plc.

Our registered offices are located at 47 Esplanade, St Helier, Jersey JE1 0BD, Channel Islands. Our principal executive offices are located at 1-2 Berkeley Square, London W1J 6EA, United Kingdom. Our telephone number is +44 2033 270270. Our principal website is www.birkenstock-holding.com. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this prospectus or the registration statement of which it forms a part.

Implications of Being a Foreign Private Issuer

We are considered a “foreign private issuer.” Accordingly, we report under the Exchange Act as a non-U.S. company with foreign private issuer status. This means that, as long as we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we will be exempt from certain provisions of the Exchange Act that are applicable to U.S. domestic public companies, including:

We may take advantage of these exemptions until such time as we are no longer a foreign private issuer. We would cease to be a foreign private issuer at such time as more than 50% of our outstanding voting securities are held by U.S. residents and any of the following three circumstances applies: (i) the majority of our executive officers or directors are U.S. citizens or residents, (ii) more than 50% of our assets are located in the United States or (iii) our business is administered principally in the United States.

In addition, as a foreign private issuer, the Company is also entitled to rely on exceptions from certain corporate governance requirements of the NYSE. As a result, you may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are not foreign private issuers.

In this prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein, we have taken advantage of certain of the reduced reporting requirements as a result of being a foreign private issuer. Accordingly, the information contained herein may be different than the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold equity securities.

Our Principal Shareholder

L Catterton

L Catterton invested and acquired a majority stake in the Company in 2021 through affiliated entities. L Catterton is a market-leading consumer-focused investment firm, managing approximately $35 billion of equity capital across three multi-product platforms: private equity, credit and real estate. Leveraging deep category insight, operational excellence and a broad network of strategic relationships, L Catterton’s team of more than 250 investment and operating professionals across 17 offices partners with management teams to drive differentiated value creation across its portfolio. Founded in 1989, the firm has made over 275 investments in some of the world’s most iconic consumer brands. L Catterton was formed through the partnership of Catterton, LVMH and Financière Agache.

Entities affiliated with L Catterton control a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding ordinary shares. As a result, we are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the NYSE corporate governance rules. Under the NYSE corporate governance standards, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance standards, including (i) the requirement that a majority of the board of directors consist of independent directors, (ii) the requirement that we have a compensation committee that is composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities and (iii) the requirement that our director nominations be made, or recommended to our full board of directors, by our independent directors or by a nominations committee that consists entirely of independent directors and that we adopt a written charter or board resolution addressing the nominations process. We take advantage of certain of these exemptions, and, as a result, you may not have the same protections afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to all of the NYSE corporate governance requirements. In the event that we cease to be a “controlled company,” we will be required to comply with these provisions within the transition periods specified in the NYSE corporate governance rules.

THE OFFERING

This summary highlights information presented in greater detail elsewhere in this prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein. This summary is not complete and does not contain all the information you should consider before investing in our ordinary shares. You should carefully read this entire prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein before investing in our ordinary shares, including the sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this prospectus, the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our 2023 Annual Report incorporated by reference in this prospectus and our consolidated financial statements and notes to those consolidated financial statements incorporated by reference in this prospectus.

Except as otherwise noted, all information contained in this prospectus assumes:

In addition, except as otherwise indicated, all information contained in this prospectus relating to the number of ordinary shares outstanding prior to and immediately after this offering is based on 187,829,202 ordinary shares outstanding as of June 15, 2024, and excludes:

SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL INFORMATION

We have prepared our consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS and our consolidated financial statements are presented in thousands of Euros, except where indicated otherwise. Historical results for any prior period are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected in any future period. In particular, our results for the six months ended March 31, 2024 are not necessarily indicative of our results for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024. The summary financial data presented below should be read in conjunction with the information included under the headings “Presentation of Financial and Other Information” in this prospectus and “Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” in our 2023 Annual Report incorporated by reference in this prospectus as well as the consolidated financial statements, including the notes thereto, incorporated by reference in this prospectus.

The summary audited consolidated statement of comprehensive income data distinguishes the Company’s financial results into two distinct periods, the period up to and including April 30, 2021, the Transaction’s closing date (labeled “Predecessor”), and the period after that date (labeled “Successor”) and are further distinguished as follows: the Successor periods represent fiscal 2023, fiscal 2022 and the period from May 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021 and the Predecessor period represents the period from October 1, 2020 through April 30, 2021. The Predecessor Period and the Successor Periods have been separated by a vertical black line on the consolidated financial statements to highlight the fact that the financial information for such periods has been prepared under two different cost bases of accounting.

We have derived the summary historical consolidated financial data as of March 31, 2024 and for the six months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 from our unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto incorporated by reference in this prospectus.

We have derived the summary historical consolidated financial data as of September 30, 2023 and 2022 and for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2023, 2022 and 2021 from our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto incorporated by reference in this prospectus.

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income Data

Consolidated Balance Sheet Data

Consolidated Cash Flows Data

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

We review a number of operating and financial metrics, including the following non-IFRS financial measures, to measure the operating performance and financial condition of the business and to make strategic decisions. A non-IFRS financial measure is generally defined as one that purports to measure financial performance but includes adjustments that are not included in the most comparable IFRS measure. See “Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Non-IFRS Financial Measures” in our 2023 Annual Report incorporated by reference in this prospectus for additional information regarding our non-IFRS financial measures.

We use Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted gross profit, Adjusted gross profit margin, Adjusted net profit, Adjusted net profit margin, Adjusted earnings per share, Constant currency revenue and Constant currency revenue growth, which are non-IFRS financial measures, in this prospectus.

Our non-IFRS financial measures are calculated as set forth below:

We use non-IFRS financial measures, such as Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted gross profit, Adjusted gross profit margin, Adjusted net profit, Adjusted net profit margin, Adjusted earnings per share, Constant currency revenue and Constant currency revenue growth, to supplement financial information presented in accordance with IFRS. We believe that excluding certain items from our IFRS results allows management to better understand our consolidated financial performance from period-to-period and better project our future consolidated financial performance as forecasts are developed at a level of detail different from that used to prepare IFRS-based financial measures. Moreover, we believe these non-IFRS financial measures provide our stakeholders with useful information to help them evaluate our operating results by facilitating an enhanced understanding of our operating performance and enabling them to make more meaningful period-to-period comparisons. There are limitations to the use of the non-IFRS financial measures presented in this prospectus.

Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted gross profit, Adjusted gross profit margin, Adjusted net profit, Adjusted net profit margin, Adjusted earnings per share, Constant currency revenue and Constant currency revenue growth are presented for supplemental informational purposes only, have limitations as analytical tools and

should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with IFRS. Some of these limitations include that:

Reconciliation of Revenue to Constant Currency Revenue

The tables below present a reconciliation of constant currency revenue to the most comparable IFRS measure, revenues, for the periods presented:

Reconciliation of Gross Profit to Adjusted Gross Profit

The table below presents a reconciliation of Adjusted gross profit to the most comparable IFRS measure, gross profit, for the periods presented:

Reconciliation of Net Profit to Adjusted EBITDA

The table below presents a reconciliation of net profit (loss) to Adjusted EBITDA for the periods presented:

Reconciliation of Net Profit to Adjusted Net Profit