American Apparel Is Struggling For Losses.

From 2008 to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Zhou Chengjian, founder of two consecutive years

The richest man in the industry has 5220 stores throughout the country at the peak of 2012, and then at home and abroad.

With the double impact of the Internet, it is now in a loss. As a former industry leader, the rise and fall of the American state is the epitome of the current plight of the entire garment industry.

Known as "no ordinary way", once known as "Whampoa Military Academy of China's clothing industry".

After several successive announcements in recent days, clothing has fallen into the storm of public opinion.

If no profit is made in 2016, the US state will face the risk of "wearing a star to wear a hat".

As a result of a series of losses in the first half of 2015 and the first half of 2016, and the 2016 mid term forecast that the third quarter will continue to lose money, Smith Barney released a notice last week that it would sell a wholly owned subsidiary of Hua Bang Ke to create a 100% stake in the move.

Before that, the turmoil of the top management team in the United States was equally striking: in September 30th, vice president Lin Haizhou and Liu Yi chose to resign, and the two were in charge of supply chain management and the market. In August 11th, the company director Zhou Wenwu also resigned as director.

Dagong's credit rating was followed by concern.

In addition to the negative outlook of the "13 US bond 01", Dagong also said it would continue to focus on the changes in US state executives and plan the subsequent impact of the sale of assets on their management and credit levels, and release them to the market in a timely manner.

"In October, some of the company bonds were sold back to maturity and there was some pressure on short-term funds."

The United States and the relevant responsible person responded to reporters.

However, the United States also stressed that it is now in the peak season of autumn and winter sales, and the cash flow is in good condition. The bank has enough credit lines, and the company has strong solvency.

At the same time, in the face of the situation of still losing money, the United States also stressed to reporters another indicator of the company's operation: "the overall revenue in the first half of this year has increased steadily, and the growth of direct and franchisees has also shown a steady growth trend."

Therefore, the company's performance has been improved.

However, this has not been recognized by the industry.

A number of retail industry analysts told reporters that as a leading industry, the United States is in a difficult time, is the epitome of the current difficulties of the entire garment industry.

"US bond's performance is bad. Its former competitors include Semir, JEANSWEST, Giordano and so on, and their performance is not good."

Doubtful sale of subsidiaries

The United States has been in a tired state of performance for some years.

Net profit continued to decline, inventory pressure is heavy, Internet pformation is on its body "three big mountains".

The United States has been in pition stage, net profit has been declining since 2012.

In 2015, Smith Barney reported that revenue fell 4.92% to 6 billion 294 million yuan over the same period in 2014, and profits plunged 396%, losing 431 million yuan.

This is also the first loss in the first seven years of the listing.

2016 semi annual report, the United States of America "report card" is still awkward.

Data show that revenue in the first half of this year was 3 billion 74 million yuan, a slight increase of 10.7% over the same period last year, while net profit was 60 million 190 thousand and 800 yuan.

Although the third quarter results have not yet been disclosed, the semi annual report has predicted a 1-9 month performance loss and net profit will be 160 million yuan.

In addition to the difficult situation of profitability, the pressure on American stock is still heavy.

In fact, many people in the clothing industry talked about the United States, the first impression was "amazing stock."

Data corroborated this impression: in the first half of 2016, the loss of US bond inventory fell to 118 million yuan, an increase of about 68% compared with the same period last year, and the turnover days of inventory also rose to 185.26 days from 149 days in 2015.

According to the current securities law, a listed company's loss for two consecutive years will be handled by the exchange as a special warning for delisting risk warning. The company is marked as "*ST", and a three consecutive year of loss will be forced to withdraw from the market.

This also means that the United States is facing the risk of being "dressed in a hat" and there is not much time left to lose it.

This has also led to the recent sale of a 100% stake in the US state's wholly owned subsidiary, Hua bang, and its association with its losses.

In fact, the United States is ready to sell Hua Bang Ke Chuang, currently one of the best companies in the US subsidiary.

Data show that as of December 31, 2015, the total assets of Hua Bang Ke were 148 million yuan, revenue of 90 million 850 thousand yuan, and net profit of 31 million 600 thousand yuan.

Although the sale price is not yet known, the gains from Hua Bang Ke, which sells 148 million yuan in total assets, may reduce the pressure on the US state which currently expects to lose 160 million yuan.

"The sale of subsidiaries is currently under review and assessment. Please note the follow-up announcement."

The head of the US bond did not respond positively to the relationship between the sale of the subsidiary and the improvement of its performance, but it conveys the information that the company is improving at present.

"Brand pformation channel pformation in 2016, the effect of the first time, in the market downturn, the United States in the first half of 2016 reversed the downward trend into positive growth.

The main business revenue in the first half of this year was 3 billion 39 million yuan, an increase of 10.68% over the same period last year.

The effect of the company's channel expansion was remarkable, and the number of stores increased by 83 to 3809 at the end of last year.

The person in charge said.

However, the statement of "improved business performance" has not been recognized by the industry.

The more intuitive data of the retail industry's performance is Same Store Sales, which is based on the sales shop's opening for at least one year, referring to the sales volume of the same sales shop in the same period.

Because if we compare the total sales volume with the growth of the number of stores, the growth of total sales is not difficult.

Tang Xiaotang, a senior retail analyst and founder of the non stylish Chinese network, told reporters. "For example, there were 40 stores in the past, and now there are 200 stores. How much can the total sales increase?" and this does not explain profitability, repeat customers, brand awareness and so on.

Although the United States did not disclose the same store sales index, Tang Xiaotang said, "according to my grasp of the industry, it is generally believed that the sales growth of about 10% of the US bond, and its same store sales growth will not exceed 2%.

The whole industry is in a rather depressed state.

Even brands like UNIQLO are facing a drop in profits.

The rental costs have risen and the sales have risen artificially, while the same store sales have not risen or are going to rise slightly, so the profitability is actually decreasing.

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Former costumes first prosperity and decline history

Lamenting the embarrassing situation of the United States, Zhou Chengjian, who is the head of the United States, can not get around.

Zhou Chengjian, 51, started his company in 1994.

In early 2000, the United States moved its headquarters from Zhejiang to Shanghai and was successfully listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2008.

In 2009 and 2010, Zhou Chengjian boarded the two richest clothing in mainland China.

This is a period of "smooth wind" which has been a good time for most of the domestic clothing brands.

Once, clothes printed with signs like "Meters/bonwe" were once "brand names" in the hearts of many young towns.

"When I went to college in the late 90s, we did not see Adidas or Nike in such places as Wuhu and Anhui, but American, JEANSWEST, YISHION, Anta and Bosideng could all see them.

The early channel of the domestic clothing brand was better, and all of them were advertised by CCTV, and the brand awareness was up at once.

As an industry insider who studied the clothing brand for more than 10 years at home and abroad, Tang Xiaotang sighed, "at that time, there were few channels for people to do business. So it is very easy for US bond to advertise in the big platform of CCTV, and agents everywhere.

This is the reason why these brands developed rapidly at that time.

The mode of franchisees, once proud by the US state, is called "net fishing".

According to media reports at the time, taking into account the huge investment in store rentals, decoration, salaries and taxes, the United States adopted a franchise chain strategy. According to different regions, the franchise fees were charged to franchisees 50 thousand to 350 thousand yuan each year, "sharing risks with franchisees and achieving a win-win situation".

This has brought geometric growth to the size of the state's stores.

From 1995 to 2003, the number of stores in the United States jumped from dozens to more than 1100.

In the peak period of 2012, the number of stores in the United States was as high as 5220.

In August 28, 2008, the United States successfully listed A shares in Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

On the first day of listing, shares rose 51% against the market, and Zhou Chengjian and his daughter combined more than 16 billion yuan to become the richest person in China's apparel industry.

Two famous entrepreneurs, Niu Gensheng, chairman of Mengniu Group and chairman of Vanke Group, are adding glory to the listing of the state of Wang Shi.

Wang Shi is said to have been a good friend of Zhou Chengjian, and Niu Gensheng is a classmate of Zhou Chengjian Yangtze River Business School.

The two then served as director of the US state.

In 2008, Smith Barney's revenue and net profit were 4 billion 474 million yuan and 588 million yuan respectively.

Since then, both revenue and net profit have risen sharply, reaching its peak value until 2011 - revenue of 9 billion 945 million yuan and net profit of 1 billion 206 million yuan.

From the data point of view, 2011-2012 years is a turning point in the history of the development of the US state.

This year, the United States suffered the biggest public opinion crisis since its listing, and was deeply bogged down in rumors of financial fraud, which led to a sharp fall in share prices.

By the end of 2011, the United States and the United States were exposed by the media 2 billion 560 million inventory pressure.

At that time, textile and garment listed companies generally lost money or profits declined. The data released by the US semi annual report in 2012 showed "gorgeous": revenue grew by 21%, net profit increased by 15%, and 800 million inventories were digested in half a year.

But then the media pointed out that Zhou Chengjian and his relatives controlled the company through the related pactions contributed part of the performance of the U.S. state.

If we look back at the history of enterprise development, it seems to us that in 2008, the crisis of the US state has already arrived.

"During the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the domestic economy was developing rapidly and the consumption power was also catching up with the rapid development of infrastructure.

Brands such as Smith Barney flourished, but international brands came in at the same time.

This means that there are only a few brands of competition between the United States, Semir, JEANSWEST and Giordano. At the same time, there is a large number of international brand competition. Products and marketing have no advantage at all. The whole garment industry is like this.

Tang Xiaotang analysis, "at this time, it is precisely because of the prosperity and development of these domestic brands, they began to expand.

After the rapid expansion, it encountered external attacks and led to a defeat.

In fact, looking back at Zhou Chengjian's record of media interviews, at least in 2008, during the heyday of the United States, he did not pay enough attention to the competition of international brands.

At that time, Zhou Chengjian told the media, "although many overseas fashion brands are stationed in China, they have changed their consumption outlook to a certain extent. However, compared with the United States and the United States, they still lack the understanding and research of the Chinese market, or lack of development strategies for the Chinese market."

At the same time, another more intense pressure comes from the Internet.

Ma Gang, a senior garment industry analyst, told reporters: "the state of the United States can be said to be a partial leisure and cross fashion sector. It faces strong international competitors, such as H&M, UNIQLO and so on. At the same time, from the price point of view, the apparel brand of the entire Internet is its competitive hands.

Because the price of the United States is around 300 yuan, which is the best selling price belt for the entire Internet clothing, and the garment industry is one of the most thorough businesses.

It is self-evident that this impact on American Apparel. "

The prospect of Internet pformation is not yet clear.

In 2010, Mei Bang embarked on the road of Internet pformation.

Compared with other similar clothing brands, Mei Bang's initiative in Internet pformation is a "pioneer" in the industry, but the effect is not satisfactory.

In December 2010, the United States and the United States launched the online shopping platform, which is considered to be the "first show" in the Internet pformation.

Through this platform, consumers can sweep the code in the physical store, and can also realize online shopping and offline replacement.

Regretfully, the operation of BNN has just ended in less than a year, and the US dollar has spent 60 million yuan on it.

After two years of brewing, in October 2013, the United States announced the launch of the O2O strategy.

In order to create an offline experience store, Smith Barney closed some franchises and opened more than 1000 Direct stores.

Mei Bang also tried to combine urban characteristics and shop themes, and introduced the idea of "one city, one culture, one shop, one story" to build situational shopping.

At this point, the independent purchase of two years long Bong network has also returned to the company's system, fully cooperate with Zhou Chengjian's O2O strategic blueprint.

However, in the industry view, there are few visitors to the experience shop in the United States, and the O2O test results are not very effective.

In November 21, 2015, the US Stock Exchange issued 4 billion 200 million yuan for the construction of the "intelligent manufacturing" industrial supply chain platform, the O2O multi brand sales platform and the Internet big data cloud platform center.

In the war of Internet pformation, Zhou Chengjian's son Zhou Bangwei came to the stage as the power of the younger generation.

(Zhou Bangwei)

In 2015, Zhou Chengjian and Zhou Bangwei jointly issued the "fan" App.

In view of the promotion of this APP, the United States still choose to burn money: two consecutive high-profile titles known as the Internet talent show "wonderful flower", and in the summer of 2016 let star Li Yifeng endorsement.

But from the market reaction, the result is not ideal.

According to media reports in March 2016, "fan" App downloaded at that time was only about 370 thousand.

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Ma Gang told reporters that in the process of promoting Internet reform, MP is still not enough to compete against the impact of the Internet.

"The whole field of clothing is the most thoroughly affected by the Internet, and the action of the United States in this respect is actually not enough. At present, the degree of Internet is not enough to compete against the Internet's marketing.

If it can be turned into an Internet retail companies, it may not be so gloomy. "

Ma Gang analysis, "through O2O to turn off some shops, in fact, this is a traditional retail adjustment method, not enough to support its growth in performance, this action is too small."

"There is a natural defect in the profit pattern of domestic clothing business operators. Because consumers are trained to consume habits on such platforms as Taobao and Tmall, it is very difficult to turn around to the consumption of e-commerce platforms."

Tang Xiaotang also pointed out to reporters that "the United States put the goods on the Internet to clear up the inventory, but its traditional channels are still losing money. Can it be sold without losing money? And on the platform like Taobao and Tmall, businesses not only have to pay commission to the platform, but also the marketing cost of the Internet, which is not different from the cost of physical store sales."

At the same time, Tang Xiaotang even thought that the Internet pformation of some domestic clothing industry listed companies had the suspicion of "market speculation".

"There is nothing that can support these companies to have such a high market value. This is a bubble.

No one is concentrating on the retail industry itself. "

A noteworthy phenomenon is that after years of declining net profits and high inventory prices, Smith Barney's share price soared during the 2015 stock market crash, and finally attracted the inquiry letter from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

At the same time, Zhou Chengjian, chairman of the US bond company, involved Xu Xiang case, and the rumors of "lost contact" between and Smith in January 2016, sparked widespread debate in the capital market.

It is reminiscent of the early 2016 when Zhou Chengjian's "lost contact" rumours came into being.

Zhou Chengjian said: "I feel that in the past ten years, I have misplaced myself and let myself" go off the rails ". Instead of concentrative attention on this industry and profession, I really used a craftsman spirit to make a tailor, so I was abandoned by the market.