Hugo Boss Will Cooperate With Three Chinese Electricity Providers

Recently, the German fashion brand Hugo Boss released a report on the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014. The results showed that the demand for high-end clothing declined due to the stagnation of the European economy as a whole. Sales of Hugo Boss increased 5% in the fourth quarter to 684 million euros (4 billion 888 million yuan), but failed to reach the 699 million 400 thousand euro (about 4 billion 998 million yuan) that analysts had expected. Net profit increased by 6% to 167 million euros (1 billion 193 million yuan), which is also lower than the 172 million 800 thousand euros (1 billion 235 million yuan) estimated by analysts before.

The few bright spots in the earnings report came from the women's clothing series designed by Jason Wu, a Chinese American designer. In 2014, Hugo Boss invited the American first lady's designer to run the women's costume design team. Last November, when the company announced its third quarter earnings report, it said that the first women's clothing series designed by Jason Wu has been far ahead of expectations since it was launched in July. Wholesale buyers have also given positive feedback to its 2015 spring and summer series, which is undoubtedly good news for the brand's overall sales growth in the next few years.

For men's wear, women's clothing and women's accessories have become the growth point that brands try to excavate in recent years, and designers' Asian faces may be a selling point.

In order to remedy Europe's slowing down demand for high-end fashion, Hugo Boss is not only an Asian creative designer for women's clothing, but also CEO Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, Hugo Boss is opening more new stores in Asia and the Middle East and is ready to reclaim dealership in China and South Korea. "Our global growth strategy is to expand brand influence and manage retail channels ourselves." Lahrs added that "reclaiming the distribution rights of the two countries means further strengthening the layout of these key markets."

From March 1st this year, Hugo Bosss will recover 17 authorized stores in South Korea. At the same time, China's 130 Hugo Boss stores will also be returned to the company. This will make Hugo Bosss a step closer to the goal -- enhancing brand awareness and full channel transformation, including the third party platform for e-commerce.

In January of this year, Hugo Boss began working with Jingdong, an e-commerce platform in China. Hugo Boss does not enter Jingdong in the form of a flagship flagship store. Instead, Jingdong buys four series of nearly 10000 items in wholesale form to Hugo Boss and sells online.

"The sale price of Hugo Boss is generally up to or even below the half off price of the entity store. This price is not reached after the overseas purchasing plus tax payment point." Jingdong public relations wrote in an email interview to reply to the interface news.

Before Jingdong, in September 2014, Hugo Boss's Boss and Boss Orange brands had entered the brand flagship store. Then in November, its Boss Orange opened its official flagship store in Tmall.

In fact, Luxury brand There are very few examples of sales in the third party e-commerce platform in China, let alone a number of third party platforms.

"Hugo Boss is a luxury brand for consumers, but its practical marketing strategy is a fashion brand strategy. As long as the quality of service can be ensured through third parties, or through E-commerce sales It's not a problem. But the indirect marketing mode is another thing. Vincent Bastien, a senior manager of the luxury goods industry, said to the interface journalist.

But in the short term, you want to see it from the financial statements. Hugo Boss It is unlikely that Asia and the Middle East will improve their performance significantly. According to the Hugo Boss2014 annual report, Asia accounts for only 13% of the total Hugo Boss sales. Not long ago, Goldman Sachs also lowered its growth expectations for Hugo Boss and recommended that customers sell Hugo Boss shares. Hugo Boss's former holding European private equity fund Permira Holdings Ltd. also held its third reduction in December last year.

The European market is not revival, and the role of Asian markets can not be immediate. As CEO Claus-Dietrich Lahrs said, "in the light of economic and political uncertainties, 2015 will not be easy."