Dive Brief:
- Peloton Interactive CFO Liz Coddington will step down from her role at the fitness equipment maker next month, the company announced in a Thursday press release and securities filing, stating she is leaving for another unnamed opportunity “outside the industry.”
- Separately Thursday, consumer energy firm Palmetto said Coddington will join as its CFO effective March 30, coming as the clean energy provider looks to enter a new phase of growth, according to a separate press release.
- Coddington will step down from her role at the New York-based Peloton effective March 27, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She will not receive severance payments or benefits in association with her departure, which is not the result of any disagreement or issues relating to financial disclosures or accounting measures. Peloton will begin a “comprehensive” search for her successor, the fitness company said in the filing.
Dive Insight:
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Palmetto cited Coddington’s experience scaling complex, consumer-facing and technology-driven businesses in announcing her appointment.
"As we continue to grow and support our consumers in accessing affordable, reliable energy solutions her strategic discipline, operational rigor and credibility with both consumers and investors will be invaluable,” Palmetto CEO Chris Kemper said in a statement included in the release.
Before joining Peloton in 2022, Coddington served six years at Amazon in roles including VP, AWS Services Finance, and her previous experiences include serving as a VP of finance and CFO for Walmart.com, as well as a four-year tenure in various roles for streaming service Netflix.
While at the fitness company, she “played a vital role in Peloton’s continued transformation,” the fitness company’s CEO and President Peter Stern said in a statement.
“As Liz moves on to her next opportunity, she leaves us not only with a better balance sheet, but also a renewed sense of financial discipline. In so doing, she has helped clear the path for us to move beyond connected fitness to realize our ambition in connected wellness,” Stern said in the statement included in the Thursday release.
Under Coddington’s financial leadership, the company has embarked on a number of initiatives to reduce costs and regain lost ground after seeing sales soar to records highs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In August, Peloton announced a global restructuring plan aimed at achieving at least $100 million of run-rate savings by the end of its fiscal 2026, CFO Dive reported at the time. The plan entailed cutting back indirect spending as well as global layoffs of approximately 6% of its workforce at the time.
The ongoing restructuring efforts led to wider margins as well as a reduction in operating expenses for its most recent quarter ended Dec. 31, Stern said Thursday during the earnings call according to a transcript.
Total operating expenses — excluding restructuring, impairment and supplier settlement costs — dropped by 7% year-over-year to $320 million for its second quarter of fiscal 2026, “reflecting the continued progress we've made in rightsizing our cost structure,” Coddington said during the call.
The company has also continued to see profitability improvement, reporting a 4% YoY increase in gross profit to about $331 million, according to its earnings release. However, Peloton also reported a 7% YoY decline in membership subscriptions to 2.6 million, while total revenue for the period fell 3% YOY to $657 million, $8 million below Peloton’s guidance range — a decline the company mainly attributed to less-than-expected sales to existing members.
