JEANSWEST, Smith Barney, Baleno... Why Have All The Popular Leisure Brands Failed?

The cold wind of the global retail industry has blown a garment giant. JEANSWEST, the former clothing giant, is facing bankruptcy in JeansWest. The world's biggest clothing brand, which made jeans, entered the twilight.

Founded in 1972, JEANSWEST is one of the Australian fashion brands. Its famous products include the cowboy series and the maternity series. In the 90s of last century, it was bought by the two brothers of Yang Zhao and Yang Xun and gradually entered the Chinese market.

The cheap and cheap positioning has brought brands like JEANSWEST and Baleno to many towns in the mainland of China. JEANSWEST, who has been in China for 27 years, even made many people think it is a domestic brand.

　 JEANSWEST, once popular

The maximum revenue amounted to HK $4 billion 959 million.

JEANSWEST is the traditional clothing brand of the main denim and casual wear. It was first founded in 1972 in Perth, the Western Australian city. After twenty years, it became a well-known clothing brand in Australia.

In the 90s of last century, it was acquired by the two brothers of Yang Zhao and Yang Xun, and gradually entered the Chinese market, and once became a popular brand.

At that time, the market was flourishing. JEANSWEST, together with Baleno, Esprit, Giordano, and burshlong, set up a brand awareness for consumers, and also enjoyed the first wave of economic take-off.

In the peak of 2012, JEANSWEST's domestic revenue amounted to HK $4 billion 959 million.

However, as ZARA, H & M, UNIQLO and other fast fashion brands enter China, they have already sunk to 345 line cities, and JEANSWEST, which has become a mass brand, has lost competitiveness. The rise of the electricity supplier channel has brought a huge impact to JEANSWEST, a conservative business operator with slow transformation.

Since 2012, JEANSWEST's domestic retail business has begun to decline.

It can be seen that the new and old alternation in the fashion market is still continuing. After 90 years, when they are rushing into fresh feeling, they have long forgotten the youth left behind.

　 JEANSWEST was sold at HK $800 million.

It is difficult to attract customers only by "value for money".

In 2018, JEANSWEST's parent company sunrise group announced that it would sell the mainland's clothing retail business, namely the JEANSWEST brand, to the Group founder and major shareholder Yang Zhao and Yang Xun brothers with a loss of HK $800 million for a series of years. It is expected that the sale will generate an income of about 31 million 333 thousand yuan.

After the sale is completed, the group will no longer participate in any loss making business, focusing on interior design, decoration services and financial services.

In the announcement, sun group said:

Despite the past few years, the company has restructured the retail network and improved the efficiency of the supply chain, making the product supply more flexible and accurate. It has invested more resources and publicity in product design and marketing, and launched online business to grasp China's expanding electricity supplier market. However, as the market competition is becoming more intense, the rise of the electricity supplier has hit the store business. To date, JEANSWEST is hard to attract customers only by the reputation of "value for money". Therefore, all efforts of the management did not bring substantial improvement to JEANSWEST's mainland business.

　 Lay off more than 6000 people and close 1300 stores.

JEANSWEST's losses in successive years

As of 2019, JEANSWEST has opened more than 2000 chain stores in 20 provinces of China, but it has laid off more than 6000 people, closed more than 1300 stores and declined 65% in performance, which is the true portrayal of JEANSWEST since 2013.

Asahi group said that in the first 5 months of May 31, 2018, the first 12 months of December 31, 2017 and the first 12 months of December 31, 2016, JEANSWEST's mainland China business recorded pre tax profits of HK $45 million 320 thousand, HK $50 million 453 thousand, HK $31 million 199 thousand, and post tax profit of HK $HK $4.

In fact, combing reporters found that from 2013, the total business volume of JEANSWEST continued to show a downward trend, the 2013-2017 year year-on-year decline was 0.7%, 13.32%, 25.91%, 23.98% and 4.37% respectively.

Factors such as poor performance, continuous losses, and difficult business recovery are all the underlying reasons for this transaction.

Where did JEANSWEST lose?

As a leading industry, it is now in a serious loss and can not escape the fate of being sold. The rise and fall of JEANSWEST is a microcosm of the current predicament of the entire garment industry.

It is worth mentioning that behind the loss of JEANSWEST, Metersbonwe, Baleno, Giordano and other domestic brands in the past have been experiencing the same predicament as JEANSWEST in recent years.

Look at the brand of Metersbonwe, which is facing the crisis of the same generation, is also facing the same problem. Since 2017, Metersbonwe has launched a series of brand transformation plans. However, due to the lack of improvement in product design and the fading of brand influence, it still faces the problem of being forgotten by young consumers.

Ma Gang, an apparel industry analyst, pointed out in the interview that the whole domestic casual wear category is facing the following problems:

First, the market competition is too intense, and the fashion and the brand are eating up the market share.

Two, the link between brand and emerging consumption is weak, leading to a decline in brand loyalty.

The three is the rigid management team thinking, which is seriously out of line with the market, the poor innovation ability, and the serious homogenization of products.

For the future development of JEANSWEST and other leisure apparel brands, many industry experts generally believe that the most important thing is to identify the brand consumer group, and then do the decomposition of products and marketing, so as to achieve the goal of upgrading, personalization and IP of the product.

The clothing market is a rapidly changing market. If we can not keep pace with the changes of the times and the evolution of the industry, the glory of the past is just a flash in the sky. Sooner or later, it will be forgotten in the corner of memory, leaving an elegy.