Luxury resale marketplace The RealReal has appointed John Koryl as its new permanent CEO, eight months after Founder Julie Wainwright stepped down from the role.
At the time of her June 2022 departure, Wainwright said it was “time for the next generation of leadership to guide the company through its next chapter.” President and COO Rati Sahi Levesque and CFO Robert Julian led the company as Co-Interim CEOs during the search and will now return to their previous roles full time.
“We are excited to have John join The RealReal at this important point in the company’s evolution,” said Rob Krolik, Lead Independent Director for The RealReal in a statement. “He has extensive experience as an ecommerce and omnichannel executive driving operational excellence and profitability. This experience, combined with his proven track record of successfully developing and growing online businesses, make him the right person to lead The RealReal.”
Koryl joins The RealReal from Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC), where he most recently served as President of CTC Digital. Prior to his time at CTC, Koryl helped modernize Neiman Marcus’ omnichannel experience as President of Stores and Online and President of Neiman Marcus Direct. Koryl’s remit when he takes the helm at The RealReal on Feb. 6, 2022 is to streamline “the company’s operations to improve overall client experience, achieve cost savings and lead the company to profitability.”
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“I’m thrilled to be joining The RealReal at such a pivotal time for the brand,” said Koryl in a statement. “As the leader in luxury resale and as the pioneer in transforming the consignment experience, The RealReal has significant opportunity to capture even more market share in the quickly evolving and fast-growing resale industry. I look forward to working with this innovative, cutting-edge team to continue growing the circular economy and driving efficiencies to fast track profitability.”
The RealReal has struggled to achieve profitability in the past few years despite strong sales growth, and the company’s share price has tanked as a result — from a high of $28.22 in February 2021 down to $1.48 as of Jan. 26, 2023. But there are bright spots on the horizon: at the time of Wainwright’s departure, the company laid out an aggressive strategy to reach profitability by 2024. In its Q3 2022 earnings, reported in November 2022, then Co-Interim CEO Sahi Levesque indicated that that goal might be reached sooner than expected.
“We believe there are levers in the business that may enable us to reach profitability with lower top-line growth than previously projected,” said Levesque in the earnings call. “To this end, we are focused on the following strategic initiatives: (1) overhauling our consignor commission structure, (2) further optimizing our pricing, (3) taking a more aggressive approach on costs and (4) capitalizing on potential new revenue streams. We are confident that these strategic initiatives will have a meaningful positive impact on our business. However, it may take a quarter or two for these initiatives to be fully reflected in our financial results.”
The RealReal’s revenue for Q3 2022 was $142.7 million, compared to $118.9 million in Q3 2021, and net loss for the quarter was down to $47.3 million, compared to $57.2 million in Q3 2021.
