Two Mistakes In American Apparel

In the vast group of Zhejiang businessmen, Zhou Chengjian is a heterogeneous group. Smith Barney Clothing has not yet set foot in the real estate industry, nor has the experience of making a big investment in the stock market. The tailor's chairman insisted on making clothes only.

When other entrepreneurs believe that the clothing business is difficult to grow, the income of the American Apparel has reached 7 billion 500 million yuan in 2010. Compared with 2005, the revenue growth has reached 717.88%. If only the clothing business is compared, the apparel revenue of the American state garment has surpassed YOUNGOR, becoming the boss of Chinese clothing enterprises.

The boss will also make mistakes. Zhou Chengjian does not deny that he has made several aggressive mistakes, not only in front of shareholders but also in the media.

"Me&; City" is a case often used by Zhou Chengjian to remind himself that he does not want to be quick and aggressive. In August 2008, when the Shenzhen stock exchange was officially launched, it was unveiled. Sub brand "Me&; City".

According to a senior apparel industry, a new clothing brand is usually a year's deficit, two years flat, three years to win, a new brand to make money a year, this is impossible, especially when the new sub brand is different from the original brand.

At the beginning of its creation, the American state dress had set the sales volume of Me&City in 2009 at the scale of 2 billion yuan. In fact, in 2009, Me&, City's business income was only 350 million yuan; in 2010, the sales volume of Me&City increased to 690 million yuan, but it was still far below the 2 billion target value. Before that, Me&City still did not make profits. How to realize the breakeven of Me&City is a problem that Zhou Chengjian urgently needs to solve.

Zhou Chengjian believes that the "Me&City" experience in the past three years is of great value, and the pursuit of scale should not be the top priority for enterprises. He said: "from today's analysis of Me&, City, the first thing is not to shop on a large scale, and second do not expect to become hundreds of millions of dollars overnight. That is to say, the pursuit of one hundred million to two hundred million in 2008, three hundred million to four hundred million in 2009, five to six hundred million in 2010, and the pursuit of seven to eight hundred million in 2011, which is more insurance; but in 2009, it is going to be 2 billion, which is a great investment. The fact is not yet achieved, but the cost is not there, and the profit is not achieved. The root of the problem is that there is not enough risk awareness."

Another case is September 2010. be run directly by a manufacturer The same store can grow to 80%~90%, and Zhou Chengjian, including the US based apparel executives, predicts that in the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of this year, the comparable growth of the same store can reach 100%. The US state clothing has greatly increased the number of orders. But it was the late spring of the year 2010 that brought about a rebound in the weather. {page_break}

In 2011, a quarterly report showed that the amount of apparel inventory was 3 billion 160 million yuan, an increase of about 600 million yuan over the 2 billion 550 million yuan early this year, and Zhou Chengjian admits that according to the annual sales scale of the US state, the amount of inventory controlled at 1 billion ~15 billion yuan is a reasonable level.

For more than 1 billion 500 million of the inventory how to digest, Zhou Chengjian believes that we should strengthen the supply chain management of American Apparel, the goal of performance growth should not simply consider the growth level before the season, but should grasp it dynamically.