Over 1000 Stores In One Year! Who Abandoned Daphne?

Recently, a generation of "public shoe king" Daphne disclosed its 2018 performance.

This is a "heavy" report card: the turnover has declined, the gross profit margin has decreased from 52.8% to 49.9%, and the shareholders of the company account for a loss of HK $994 million.

This is Daphne's fourth year loss.

According to the international finance newspaper, Daphne has lost 2 billion 926 million Hong Kong dollars from 2015 to 2018, and its share price has fallen from nearly HK $3 in early 2015 to HK $0.25, with a market capitalization of more than 9.

In order to reverse the sluggish business situation, Daphne has been pushing forward the adjustment strategy in the past few years, one of which is to close the loss stores.

In 2018 alone, Daphne closed 1016 sales outlets. In terms of conversion, it closed nearly 2.8 stores a day.

At the peak of 2012, the number of Daphne's brand stores was close to 7000. Now, Daphne stores have less than 3000 stores.

Who has abandoned Daphne in the past 6 years? Will it become the second BELLE in the future?

3837 stores in four

"Can Daphne still be saved?" at the beginning of this month, a long-term concern Daphne investor threw out this question to the international finance Daily reporter on social media.

The person believes that Daphne has been in pition for several years, but data show that its pformation effect is not obvious.

In fact, Daphne is not satisfied with its performance in the past year.

"In 2018, the group continued its business pformation strategy aimed at restoring profitability.

However, the adverse economic environment to combat consumer desire makes the effect of the group's business pformation plan not fully reflected in the 2018 financial performance.

In the business review section of the performance report, Daphne said in the opening paragraph.

Data show that in 2018, Daphne's turnover was HK $4 billion 127 million, down 20.8% compared to the same period last year.

Daphne said that this was mainly due to the decrease in the number of stores in its core brand business from 3589 at the end of 2017 to 26.2% at the end of 2018, and the decline in same store sales, which led to a decline in its sales.

Daphne's core brands include "Daphne" and "shoe cabinet".

It is said that in response to the difficult business environment faced by the entity retailers, Daphne continued to adjust its channel portfolio last year to close down the poor performing shops. The core brand of the whole year closed to 941 outlets (including 899 stores and 42 franchises).

According to Daphne's caliber, despite its aggressive product upgrading strategy, it has begun to have a positive impact on sales, but overall, its core brand business in the same store last year showed a 7.6% decline.

Daphne's other brand businesses mainly include its e-commerce business and its high-end brand business (including the group's own brand and exclusive distribution rights), which is almost the same as the core brand.

In 2018, Daphne's other brand business turnover decreased by 20.6% to HK $583 million.

The company said this was mainly due to the challenging retail market environment and the net reduction of 75 sales points in 2018.

By the end of 12 2018, the total number of sales outlets of all the brands of Daphne was only 2820, including 2648 sales outlets of core brand businesses and 172 sales outlets of other brand businesses.

For the former public shoe king, the size of such a channel has already shrunk.

In 2012, the sales point of all the brands of Daphne had reached 6881, and by the end of 2014, its total sales point was also 6757.

In contrast, in the past four years (from 2015 to 2018), Daphne closed 3937 stores.

However, according to the financial report, by the end of 2018, Daphne's stock had been reduced to HK $992 million from HK $1 billion 247 million at the end of 2017, which may give some comfort to Daphne, who is facing a sales predicament.

Where is the way?

The predecessor of Daphne is Yong en International Group, founded by Zhang Wenyi and Chen Xianmin.

Allegedly, in 1988, due to the high cost of land and labor in Hongkong, the two founders pferred the factory to Putian, Fujian, and created the brand of women's shoes, Daphne.

Since then, Daphne has been booming in the mainland.

In November 1995, Daphne listed on the main board of Hongkong.

In 2008, the company's shares were changed from "wing en international" to "Daphne international".

During the period from 2009 to 2012, Daphne's shoe retail business was booming, and its performance grew even more. In 2012, its revenue reached HK $10 billion 500 million.

There is a rumour in the anecdotal world that Chen Yingjie, who was the head of Daphne, once said with great pride, "if BELLE is the Mercedes Benz of women's shoes, then Daphne is the" BMW "in the women's shoes industry.

However, in recent years, the "BMW" seems to have some lack of motivation on the way forward.

Reviewing past performance reports, the reporter noted that since 2013, Daphne has seen a continuous decline in turnover.

In 2016, Daphne appeared for the first time in more than 10 years, and the previous one goes back to 2001, and Daphne did not expand at that time.

Many consumers have coincide with the "international finance daily" reporter that Daphne's style in recent years seems to be somewhat behind the trend.

"Stores are always discounted, feeling that they are going to inventory, which is harmful to the value of the brand.

In addition, the brands that are almost the same price as Daphne are more and more, and they are more young and cost-effective.

Miss Chang, a white collar worker who has entered the workplace for more than a year, said so.

Under the background of increasing competition pressure, Daphne is also making efforts to "save itself", including continuous product upgrading, improving sales channel efficiency and improving management efficiency.

"The group will increase investment in product research and development, focusing on fashion and comfort.

The Group continues to enrich its diversified product mix with more fashionable products and sports shoes to better meet customer needs.

In addition to launching new products more frequently, the group will also expand product categories to seize more business opportunities. "

Daphne pointed out in its annual report.

Nine Shao Ligang, general manager of the consulting group, told the international finance daily that in the shoe and clothing industry, new brands are constantly coming into the market, and the competition for the market is also growing.

At the same time, there is still a mismatch between the property of the original brand and its location group, which leads consumers to choose other brands.

Daphne also said that it is ready to enter the next stage of business pformation and will carry out business model innovation to eliminate bottlenecks in its business operation.

Is there any chance for Daphne? Aiming at the problems of performance loss and future positioning of products, the International Financial Daily reporter interviewed Daphne, but as of press release, the other side did not reply.