Zhejiang Clothing Industry: Sales Situation Is Lower Than Expected, Stock Pressure Is Big.

For many people, agriculture is a work that depends on heaven, but few people understand it. clothing It's also a business to watch God eat. Due to various reasons and the bad sales caused by the weather, in 2012, it is undoubtedly a year for many Zhejiang clothing enterprises. The pressure is not only on the reduction of orders, the reduction of profits, but also more directly and more impacted than the stock mire. Continuous clothing discount season, let many garment enterprises, business households have frankly "can not afford to live", at present, the whole industry is facing an unprecedented inventory digestion war.

"This year's sales situation is much worse than expected."

　　 Inventory "pressure mountain"

This autumn, a United States Clothes & Accessories The news of huge inventory has focused everyone's attention on the clothing industry. The focus of attention is nothing more than high inventory that has never been seen before. In fact, the reporter noted that the latter is not just a ghost hovering over the US state. A number of Zhejiang clothing listed companies in 2012 semi annual report, the third quarter report, you can see some clues.

According to the disclosure, the stock of Semir clothing has expanded to 1 billion 500 million yuan in the first half of this year, and this figure is only 1 billion 100 million yuan by the end of last year. The third quarter report of wedding bird clothing showed that inventories increased by 45.74% over the same period last year. By the end of the reporting period, the total inventory was 140 million yuan. The inventory pressure of listed companies was so large that it was not necessary for SMEs to say so.

Wulin Road is a clothing street that many people in Hangzhou often loitered. However, the reporter noted that most of the shops in recent years have put up a discount sign in the prominent position, and many brands have been discounted at 50 percent off or even lower, while others have hit 90 percent off.

A storefront near the food court is spanformed into a brand special store. There are all kinds of women's clothing brands, ranging from summer wear to winter wear. The price after discount is mostly between 100 and 300 yuan. Comparing the price of the reporter and the original sign, it is found that the discount is basically 2 to 70 percent off.

There is no coincidence. The Phoenix Road, which is not far from Wulin Road, has also opened many shops like this. In a store store reporter who claims to be a brand women's clothing store, the reporter saw a knitted cardigan priced at 1200 yuan, the sale price was 150 yuan, almost to 90 percent off.

However, despite such a big discount, the popularity of the shop seems to be insufficient. When the reporter came into the shop, only two of the shop assistants enthusiastically came to the shop and said that their brands had special counters in the shopping malls. When a reporter asked why there was such a low discount, the other party said it was all last year's style.

This explanation is obviously not convincing in the eyes of Hangzhou citizen Liu Jing. Because she loves to shop, she has found that in Hangzhou department store, intime department store and other shopping malls, some clothing brand's autumn clothing just sold, directly hit a discount of 10 percent off or even lower. And unlike previous shopping discounts, many clothing brands have begun to put their weight down this year.

Miss Lin, a guide newspaper reporter who has been shopping for a brand dress, revealed that compared with previous years, this year's preferential sales form varied and the discount cycle was longer, but still did not complete the target. "Customers do not seem to have bought the demand, butting down the sale of autumn clothes can only help themselves."

Hangzhou's largest clothing distribution center Sijiqing clothing market, special sale has become a norm. Wang Pai, the boss of the new Hangzhou fashion city, said that he had been doing the clothing business for over 5 years. The pressure this year was particularly great. In order to digest the inventory, the shop sold more than half a month earlier than last year, but the stock has increased a lot.

Such a situation is not an isolated case.

"This year's sales situation is much worse than expected." The head of a garment enterprise in Hangzhou told the reporter that the inventory of the general clothing industry was reasonable between 10% and 20%, but in the first half of this year, the market demand was insufficient, and the inventory pressure of enterprises increased greatly, at least 10% over last year. "Consumers' willingness to buy is particularly low this year." He said.

This is also recognized by Wang's boss. He told the Herald reporter that in the past year, there were at least a dozen or so guests per day, but recently, fewer than ten guests came to patronize every day. In the store, the reporter saw that his main brand T-shirt retail price at ordinary times was 120 yuan, and now the special price is 120 yuan and 2 pieces. "Selling this price is actually a loss, but not selling more." He said.

"Accumulation is just like Domino's dominoes, causing a vicious cycle of repeated rounds."

　　 Straw that crushed camels

"Clothing is the most valuable commodity." Lao Jian, director of Jiande Jian Jie garment factory, told the reporter that a large backlog of products, not only occupied the operation capital of enterprises, but also consumed manpower and material resources, and also increased the management cost of enterprises, lengthened the turnover cycle of products and reduced overall profits.

As for the pressure of inventory this year, Lao Zhu thinks that on the one hand, the survival pressure of garment enterprises is increasing, and on the other hand, the external demand is depressed. For the rising cost, the old wish is a bitter pill. "For most of today's garment manufacturers, it is good to have 2 to 3 points profit." He said.

However, the cost is rising so rapidly. For the garment industry, the labor force is undoubtedly the core competitiveness factor. He gave the reporter an account: a few years ago, the workers increased their wages once a year, plus hundreds of yuan each time. This year, they added several times to the original. So far, they have increased two times, and the change of labor force has not only increased wages so simply. In a survey, the reporter found that, compared with the rise in wages, many enterprises have to adapt to the "smart and increasingly impatient" workers.

In addition, weak external demand is seen as another incentive for high inventories. Li Li, who works in the garment industry for 6 years, works in a foreign trade enterprise, which produces more than ten thousand garments a year, mainly exported to Africa and South America. She said that the export orders of garment enterprises have declined in recent years. For foreign trade enterprises, orders are not big enough to produce, and stocks are relatively small. However, a large number of foreign trade enterprises begin to turn into domestic trade when export orders decline, which exacerbates the competition of the domestic garment industry.

"Because of fashion trends, capital flows and other reasons, the clothing industry has accumulated up to a year." Huang Jia Hu, an industry insider, said that some enterprises with insufficient risk tolerance are easily crushed to death by high inventory, because these commodities have been devaluing for a long time and further deducted the cash flow of enterprises.

In his view, although clothing and other industries are different, it is difficult to achieve "zero inventory", but from a deeper perspective, the surge in inventories this year highlights the weak management capabilities of many enterprises, and, like Domino, will create a cycle of vicious cycles.

The most realistic reflection of such an impact on many small and medium enterprises is that survival is getting into difficulties. For apparel brand enterprises, the most direct embodiment is the surge in investment. Behind this is the fact that a lot of businesses are joining the bottom line. The reporter learned that, due to the late arrival of last winter, many clothing brands had problems with winter clothing sales. From then on, the days of franchisees began to get worse. By this year, due to weather reasons, sales of spring clothes and summer wear are still sluggish. For the less powerful franchisees, the three quarter market downturn is undoubtedly fatal. As early as the first half of this year, many garment companies admitted that the proportion of franchised stores that had been adjusted this year was also far higher than in previous years.

In October 21st, a Barbara children's clothing store on Deng Yun Road also chose to close the door, and at the front of the shop, a large group of decorators were busy demolishing the old. In the impression of the reporter, the store has been very cold since its opening. This seems to be a true portrayal of Barbara's market since the first half of this year. In fact, as Semir's children's wear brand, balbala once occupied a height in the market. However, the reporter noted that in the first half of this year, Barbara brand's revenue declined by 4% over the first half of this year, due to the slowdown in terminal demand, intensified competition and channel inventory problems.

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"How to persist and live stubbornly in the coming winter"

　　 N species crawling out of mire

Nowadays, in the face of huge inventory, many garment enterprises are trying their best to climb out of this painful mire. Among them, discount sales promotion, outlet, online sales and two or three line city centralized digestion are the most commonly used ways.

The United States chose to sell stocks in a special sale. "Through special discount stores, they are sold at a lower discount. These discount products are higher than the cost price, which will not lead to loss of apparel." Zhou Chengjian, chairman of American bond clothing, once said so.

And the reporter noted that the sale of "one to one" sales in Hangzhou seems to have become the norm. Despite this, Zhou Chengjian said that the sale is only an auxiliary means to digest inventory, and will not become a major means to prevent adverse effects on the brand, but in fact, this kind of impact can not be controlled by enterprises at all times.

"TEENIEWEENIE" is a clothing brand Liu Jing likes very much, because the price is more high-end, so that the working class she is not willing to give up frequently. Recently, however, she found that "TEENIEWEENIE" is selling discount clothes on Qingchun Road, and all the clothes sold in all seasons are sold by 50 percent off. "Bought several pieces at once." Liu Jing said, "I really feel that I have made a profit, but I think I feel a bit disappointed when I think about it. I didn't expect this brand to do this kind of promotion so that my brand image was discounted at once.

In addition to all these means, online sales have also become an important way to digest inventory.

Citizen Xiao Ye has recently liked to scour goods on the official website of the clothing brand. clothes General promotions and discounts, in the shops look good style, I will compare the price of the official website, sometimes there are discount activities online, a lot cheaper. "

Although many people say that crazy discount is easy to damage the brand image after bringing short-term sales peak, but for most of the apparel companies with high inventory, they will still choose to drink poison to quench thirst. After all, for them, the brand image has not been so important under the pressure of high inventory pressure. How to digest the stock and get capital flow to survive is the primary problem.

"A large number of low price promotions can easily turn the whole market into a vicious circle. Next, clothing companies may be even more difficult." Lao Zhu said.

In this "stock pressure mountain" voice, there are some enterprises through the slow down speed and other methods to tide over the difficulties. Because many industry experts believe that the high inventory is also a large part of clothing enterprises in the brand positioning, design concepts, sales channels, a comprehensive reflection of many problems.

They believe that at present, many clothing brands in Zhejiang are facing the embarrassment of "high failure, low quality". In order to cope with the rising costs, prices can only be continuously raised. The price of many clothing brands has even been achieved in line with international standards. However, because the added value of products is not high, it is still lagging behind in many aspects such as design, development, operation and so on. At the same time, under the impact of international fast fashion brands such as ZARA, H&;; M and UNIQLO, business difficulty has increased.

"Like brands such as Smith Barney, the production and sales ratio is maintained at sixty or seventy per cent, which is a good level, while H&;;; M's production and marketing ratio is over 80%, and because there are no distributors and other links, the selling price is lower and the impact on local brands is even greater." Lao Zhu told the reporter.

The problem of brand enterprises is that, for many small and medium-sized garment enterprises which are not strong enough, the problem is more direct. That is, how to persist and live stubbornly in the coming winter?