Sports Brands Are Pushing High Into The Field Of Children'S Clothing To Find New Profit Growth Points.

2012 as domestic adults Sporting goods industry Gradually entering the adjustment period, the children's clothing market, which is in a period of rapid development, has become the focus of attention of the major enterprises in the industry. In early May, Lining group announced that it would enter the field of children's clothing with a brand-new management team and brand logo, and released the development plan of Lining's children's clothing in the next 5 to 10 years.

In the field of children's wear, a high profile has aroused widespread speculation among industry circles: is Lining, who is in the declining stage of his performance, looking forward to finding new profit growth points with the help of children's clothing business?

　　 Children's wear Become a new area of expansion

In fact, Lining is not the only one to expand the business of children's wear this year. In April 27th, the 361 degree children's clothing signed a strategic cooperation agreement with CCTV children's channel, spanmitting the signal of further expanding children's market.

361 degrees is not a new face in the field of children's wear. When it was launched in 2009, 361 degrees indicated that it planned to use 9% of the 2 billion Hong Kong dollar financing for the research and development of children's clothing. In February 2010, after entering the field of children's clothing formally, the goal of the 361 degree children's wear department is to achieve an annual sales income of 200 million yuan in 5 years. But later market development exceeded expectations. In 2011, sales of children's clothing had reached 400 million yuan.

It is understood that at present 361 degree children's wear The number of sales outlets in China is 1400, which is projected to be 2000 next year, reaching 3000 in 2015 and gradually expanding to three or four tier cities.

In 2008, as the first sports brand to enter the children's market in China, Anta also quietly accelerated the opening speed of children's clothing. Public data show that in 2009 and 2010, the number of Anta children's wear stores was 228 and 383, respectively. But in 2011, the number of children's wear shops increased by 249 to 632, far exceeding the number of 500 children's stores planned for the beginning of the year. At the same time, there is news that Anta children's wear shop threshold has also been reduced.

After experiencing the wait-and-see period for children's clothing market, XTEP also announced in April that it will further expand its product range this year, launch leisure series represented by X TOP brand and XTEP 1+1 children's clothing, and open 100 children's clothing stores in the year. {page_break}

Finding the right market positioning is the key.

The CIC consultant's report shows that the composite annual growth rate of China's children's wear market is 22%, and it is expected to grow to 306 billion 100 million yuan in 2013. However, the children's wear market is becoming more and more crowded. Apart from the domestic sports brand, Nike, Adidas, Semir, Metersbonwe, newspaper bird and luxury brand Versace, Gucci, Armani and so on have entered. With the original brand of children's clothing at home and abroad, the whole children's wear market has actually become a battlefield without smoke.

There are concerns in the industry that, compared to the enterprises that focus on children's clothing, adult clothing enterprises have advantages in terms of production, technology, operation, management and brand influence. However, there are always differences between adult clothing and children's clothing in terms of fabric, design, operation mode and brand promotion. Whether adult shoes and garments can continue to be dominant in children's wear field is still unknown. It is understood that Bosideng announced the entry into the field of children's clothing one year later and opted out.

"Whether the new brand can be successful, the positioning of the product is very important. Whether we can rely on the core competitiveness, effectively integrate the available resources, and give children's clothing business enough attention is also very important." Chen Yongling said, "these two points are exactly what the company is doing."

It is understood that the domestic children's clothing industry market can be roughly divided into two echelons, the first level is in the shopping mall, the price of clothes is between 180 yuan and 350 yuan, and the other is in the lower end market (stalls), the price is between 25 yuan and 30 yuan. There is a market gap of 80 yuan to 150 yuan, which left room for the development of children's wear brands in China.

Looking for new profit growth points

Industry observers believe that the substantial gross margin and the huge growth potential of the market will become an important reason for attracting adult sports brands. In addition, the traditional business of the domestic sports brand has entered the adjustment period in the past two years, and the enterprise has begun to concentrate more and more attention on the children's clothing business.

The annual report shows that in 2011, domestic sports brands encountered difficulties in inventory backlog and slow growth in performance. It is understood that Lining last year's inventory of goods up to 1 billion 133 million yuan, Anta's inventory in 2011 amounted to 618 million yuan, 361 in 2011, the stock amount of 451 million yuan. According to the correlation analysis, the domestic sporting goods market has decreased from 20% annually to 13% in 2011. It is estimated that the growth rate in 2012 will further slow down to about 5% - 8%.

While the growth rate of adult shoes and clothing is slowing down, children's wear is showing a good growth trend. Barbara's revenue growth rate in 2011 even exceeded that of his mother brand "Semir" casual wear.

Chen Yongling, vice president of capital operation at 361 degree, said frankly: "speeding up the development of children's wear field is on the one hand optimistic about the future development potential of this field, and at the moment there is no strong brand in the domestic children's clothing industry, which is also an opportunity for the growth of the new brand. On the other hand, 361 degree also hopes to pull the group's performance and form a new profit growth point through multi brand strategy."

The Li Ning Co responsible person said that adult brand entry into children's clothing has its own advantages: first, the brand awareness and influence accumulated over many years in the field of adult sportswear; two, the original business system will also fully support and promote the development of children's clothing.