Wei Fu Fourth Quarter Net Profit Fell 15.3%

The US Vf Corporation (VF Corporation) is the largest in the world.

One of the companies, its business includes

More than 30, The North Face, Lee, Timberland, etc.

It involves five major categories, such as outdoor sports, jeans and costumes.

For the vast number of Chinese consumers, The North Face and Vans should have a wider recognition. After all, outdoor and sports products are more suitable for the general public in terms of price and functionality.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, Vf Corporation recently released its fourth quarter and annual earnings report. The data show that the group's performance in the US market has not improved. The net profit in the fourth quarter dropped 15.3% to 264 million 300 thousand US dollars, with a total sales volume of 3 billion 320 million US dollars, basically the same as that of the same period last year, but there is still a gap with the 3 billion 440 million analysts expected by Wall Street analysts.

Annual sales did not increase significantly compared with the previous fiscal year, and business profits fell to $1 billion 500 million, or 16%, year-on-year.

Outdoor and sporting goods are still the core of the group's business. Its annual sales increased by 2% to 7 billion 500 million US dollars, accounting for 62.5% of group sales. However, brand Vans and The North Face showed totally different market feedback.

The North Face has long been the top card of the group, but last year it was brutally hit by Waterloo, which is depressed both in the US and overseas markets.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016, sales of The North Face plunged 8%, resulting in a 2% decline in annual performance.

At the same time, it is also the only group outdoor sports department that has declined in performance.

In 2016, the outdoor sports market in the United States appeared to be flagging. The major brands did not produce the expected performance. The North Face was one of them.

Sports Authority and Eastern Outfitters are the two most important retailer partners of The North Face in the United States. Their bankruptcy is bound to have a huge impact on The North Face's offline sales.

The tightening of the third party channels has led to a backlog of product inventory. TheNorthFace had to start selling discounts on other offline channels. Eventually, the strategy spread to its own brand store.

Clearing inventory with discount means that the brand has already encountered a crisis in sales, which is a step backward.

Of course, this practice is also risky. When a commodity price is down, it is not easy to think back to the original price.

Group leaders are very aware of this point, so The North Face is still relatively cautious in the way of price reduction promotion, after all, maintaining the high-end price is the consistent style of Wei Fu's products.

Although in other parts of Europe, The North Face has seen a decline in performance, but in order to shake off the difficulties, the Chinese market is still a worthy tree.

Now, China is already the second largest market in the world in The North Face, especially in online sales.

But China's outdoor sports market is also mixed, even the high-end market competition is also very intense. The North Face's advantages in China over the past ten years are not so obvious.

In particular, Columbia's performance in 2016 was even more worrying for TheNorthFace. Columbia has surpassed TheNorthFace in terms of annual sales, and has shown growth in Europe, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region.

Moreover, Columbia is also stepping up its efforts to open up the Chinese market. The task before The North Face is not too light.

The North Face dragged its legs, and Vans replaced it as the new top brand of the Vf Corporation.

The brand, which once declared bankrupt in 1984, has already completed counterattacks. Although sports and leisure market does not seem to be very popular in Vans, even though there are many large and medium-sized brands, Vans can always maintain its market share by different positioning.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, Vans's sales surged 14% last year, thanks mainly to its strong performance in the Asia Pacific region.

In 2016, sales of Vans increased by 6% over the previous year to $2 billion 300 million.

Last year, the Vans brand was set up 50th anniversary. In such a special year, Vans can bring such achievements to Vf Corporation.

Unlike many other brands in the group, Vans is a popular brand, and Vans is always easy to walk on the streets.

But the popularity of Vans is not to condescend to everyone, but to focus on younger and professionalism.

Vans is more than just a pair of skateboard shoes. Its purpose is to be creative and gather more elements of the trend.

Vans and Vf Corporation Street Sports Union Chairman Kevin Bailey (Kevin Bailey) have said that Vans is a brand that runs through emotional injection.

Young culture requires constant iteration of marketing and communication channels.

Vans, a brand dominated by skateboarding and extreme sports lifestyle, is popular among young people and young people, largely due to fans in social media.

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At the beginning of May last year, Vans released a video named "Damn Daniel" on social media, which received over 340 thousand forwarding, and over 1 million 200 thousand of the number of people watching on You Tube.

Just like this video, Vans's direct store sales increased by 20%, and online turnover increased by 30%.

Enough to see the influence of Vans on young people.

In addition, Vans is also expanding its business in the high-end sector. If we can achieve a balanced development of high-end and low-end markets, Vans's profitability will grow further.

Like The North Face, China is also the second largest market for Vans outside the United States, and has begun to extend to two or three tier cities.

In view of China's market environment, Vans also focuses on pferring marketing methods to online, which also creates opportunities for the brand to directly communicate with consumers.

Although Vans is still not a popular brand in China, it still has a good attraction for specific groups.

Euromonitor, a British market information consultancy, recently published some views on "sports and leisure". The company believes that sports and leisure will have more impact on daily wear, and "invisible leisure" will become more common. As sports and leisure are changing from a fashion trend to a lifestyle, it is in line with consumers' vision of fashion and comfort.

Sports and leisure is a relatively broad concept, including professional sportswear, outdoor sports and some sports costumes.

The growth rate of global sports apparel 6.5% is much faster than that of the general clothing market, and the growth rate of sports footwear is higher than 9.5%. Therefore, Euromonitor predicts that by 2021, the value of sportswear will increase by US $61 billion.

There are also data showing that sports and leisure have become the new favorite of Chinese consumers, and the growth in other developed countries and emerging markets is also extremely fast.

From this, it is not difficult to understand why in the Vf Corporation, Vans's performance can soar, while The North Face, which has relatively strong functionality, has been shocked.

Euromonitor also believes that in the context of global wealth growth, the high-end luxury market will have an impact on the development of sports and leisure. That is to say, more consumers, besides paying attention to price and style, begin to put forward more requirements for product experience.

In any case, the Chinese market is still the focus of Vf Corporation.

Many of the operational experience of Vans can provide a reference for TheNorthFace. Although the product freedom of outdoor brands is not as good as the street culture products such as Vans, product innovation and change of thinking still need to be accelerated. After all, there are too many new concepts affecting young people's consumption concept. This is a rapidly changing market.

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