In winter, the first feeling is cold, depressed, and full of slaughter.
After the harsh winter, thousands of mountains and birds flew away, and thousands of people disappeared. Changing seasons is like changing generations, an era has a trend of the times, and an era has the imprint of an era.
The most regrettable thing is that the former king was reduced to bronze and was “abandoned”!
Once Seven Wolves, is one of the absolute overlords of the men’s wear industry, as the pioneer of China’s men’s wear industry, once an insurmountable brand;
He has invited Zhang Hanyu, Hu Jun, Zhang Zhen, Sun Honglei and many other male gods to speak for him, telling the audience that “there is more than one side of men”, making the image of a tough guy of “dancing with wolves” deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and a jacket has been popular for nearly 20 years, known as the “jacket king”.
It is the first share of men’s wear in Chinese mainland, with more than 4,000 stores at its peak and annual revenue of 3.48 billion yuan!
However, with the change of the times,
The once king men’s seven wolves seem to have been gradually abandoned by men.
one
Jinjiang, located in the core of the Golden Triangle in southern Fujian, is separated from the treasure island of Taiwan.
This was originally a poor county under Quanzhou, but after the reform and opening up, it took advantage of the spring breeze of “three to one supplement” and became the leader of China’s garment industry.
“Love to fight to win”! The fighting spirit of Hokkien people is vividly embodied in the Zhou brothers, the founders of Seven Wolves, the eldest brother Zhou Yongwei works in Jinjiang Zhongxing, and the second brother Zhou Shaoxiong works in Jinjiang Xinhua Bookstore.
Faced with the mushrooming of emerging enterprises, the Zhou brothers decided to give up their iron rice bowl and go to the sea to pan for gold.
In February 1985, the founders Zhou Shaoxiong and Zhou Shaoming brothers funded the establishment of Jinjiang Jinjing Labor Service Overseas Chinese Garment Craft Factory, which is the predecessor of the Seven Wolves Group.
At the end of the 90s, Qi Qin’s “I am a wolf from the north” sang throughout the country, and also stirred the hearts of the Zhou brothers, in Hokkien dialect, “wolf” and “human” are the same sound, so the three Zhou brothers united four friends to form “Seven Wolves”;
And hired the popular singer Qi Qin as a brand spokesperson, with jackets as the fulcrum, officially began to pry the Chinese men’s wear market.
In 1991, Seven Wolves introduced the “color-changing jacket,” which resembles the “Mona Lisa’s smile” and changes with light and viewing angle. With this innovative product, Seven Wolves became a national hit.
In 1995, he launched a double-sided jacket, a classic advertising slogan of “men have more than one side”, I don’t know how many men’s hearts have been poked; In the following 16 years, Seven Wolves has always been the first in the jacket market.
In 2000, he launched the classic plaid jacket, leading the trend of the Chinese jacket market.
At that time, leather jackets, big backs, and fat pants were the standard for male gods, and a leather jacket was something worth bragging about in the eyes of boys for a long time.
At that time, the salary of a civil servant was almost forty-five yuan, and a jacket of “seven wolves” could be sold for more than a hundred yuan in the mall. And even when the price is high, the product is in short supply, “people who pick up the goods often have to queue up to produce one piece and sell one by one.” ”
two
Although counterfeiting was common in the Chinese market at that time, and Seven Wolves was not a prominent brand at the time, Zhou Shaoxiong took this opportunity to plan a textbook marketing case.
Generally speaking, enterprises that have suffered infringement tend to adopt a calming attitude due to difficulties in obtaining evidence.
However, Zhou Shaoxiong carried out a big fight against counterfeiting and took the counterfeiters to court, and for a time the battle of “real and fake wolves” dominated the headlines of newspapers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and the seven wolves became famous.
Afterwards, Zhou Shaoxiong said frankly that the anti-counterfeiting incident made him know the importance of the brand, fortunately, they turned bad things into good things, and the brand of Seven Wolf has also achieved great development.
In 2004, Seven Wolves successfully landed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and became the first listed men’s wear company in China, and its performance has been rising steadily in the following 8 years.
With the performance of the seven wolves soaring, the “road of male god harvesting” began:
Invited major “tough guy movie stars” as their spokespersons, and signed Sun Honglei, Zhang Zhen, Hu Jun and Zhang Hanyu four “movie kings” in one go.
In 2012, Seven Wolves reached its peak, with 4,007 stores, revenue of 3.48 billion yuan, and non-net profit of 550 million yuan, respectively, 13 and 18 times more than when it was first listed eight years ago.
However, in 2013, the market suddenly changed, the entire Chinese clothing industry fell into a downturn, the dimensionality reduction of the Internet, the huge impact of fast fashion brands, traditional brands suffered major setbacks, and the seven wolves also fell into the performance quagmire.
In 2013, Seven Wolves’ operating income and net profit fell sharply, which was the first decline in performance since the establishment of the company, and it was a decline for five consecutive years:
It was 379 million yuan in 2013, 289 million yuan in 2014, 273 million yuan in 2015 and 267 million yuan in 2016.
Until 2017 and 2018, the net profit of Seven Wolves was 317 million and 346 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth rate of more than 15%.
But
At the end of October 2019, Seven Wolf disclosed its third quarterly report, which showed that the company’s total revenue in the first three quarters of 2019 was 2.478 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.32%; The net profit attributable to the parent was 198 million yuan, down 7.75% from the same period last year.
What happened among the seven wolves?
three
Over the past decade, the traditional apparel industry has faced multiple challenges.
On the one hand, the sustainable development of the domestic economy has greatly improved consumers’ consumption power and consumption concepts; On the other hand, the popularity of the Internet and e-commerce and the emergence of new business models have also brought more choices to consumers, increased the competitiveness of the clothing industry, and squeezed the survival space of the traditional clothing industry.
Just as in the late Qing Dynasty, the local big knives and spears collapsed under foreign guns and cannons, and the seven wolves at the forefront of domestic clothing companies also encountered a strong attack from foreign fast fashion brands.
In 2007, foreign fast fashion brands such as Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, etc. entered China, quickly opening the market with rapid iteration of products and efficient and innovative management.
In addition, the rise of Internet e-commerce has also caused a huge impact on physical stores;
The popularity of the Internet and e-commerce and the emergence of new business models have also brought more choices to consumers, increased the competitiveness of the clothing industry, and squeezed the survival space of the traditional clothing industry.
With backward models, e-commerce impacts, and rising rents in offline stores, the channel resources that Min Pai Men’s wear was proud of no longer occupy an absolute advantage.
The number of terminals with seven wolves decreased from 4,007 in 2012 to 2,821 in 2014. At the same time, due to the macroeconomic environment, consumption tends to be rational, and the road of high brand premium is difficult to sustain.
In addition, the inventory problem has also plagued Seven Wolf for many years, with 7.4611 million items in inventory in 2013, a year-on-year increase of 15.24%, and the total inventory value has also increased from 566 million yuan in 2012 to nearly 1 billion yuan in 2018.
Since 2014, the R&D investment of Seven Wolf has declined year by year, such as
In 2018, R&D investment was 52.78 million yuan, accounting for 1.5% of total revenue, down 26.74% year-on-year. Seven Wolf’s R&D investment in the first half of 2019 was only 21.35 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 29.98%.
Therefore, the asset impairment of Seven Wolf in the first half of 2019 was 64.6538 million yuan, accounting for 42.14% of the total profit, mainly due to the inventory price decline.
shop
How can the ambitious seven wolves be willing to fall by themselves? So, in the face of declining performance, the seven wolves opened the road to self-help.
First, Seven Wolves shifted from a “wholesale + brand” model to a retail model.
The low inventory and new speed of foreign fast fashion brands are simply the panacea pursued by clothing companies. Inspired by this, Seven Wolves began to adopt a similar direct-operated retailer model, with the aim of achieving refined store management, while being close to consumers and responding quickly.
Since 2016, the company’s inventory turnover has slowly improved.
Second, vertical diversification of business.
Since 2014, Seven Wolves has taken back the original authorized knitting trademark and began to make men’s underwear, panties, socks and knitting products by itself.
According to the financial report, men’s underwear, underwear, socks and other products contributed more than 1.1 billion yuan to Seven Wolves’ revenue, accounting for 36.34%. The jacket, which was once popular, accounts for less than 10% all year round.
Finally, there is horizontal expansion across domains.
The operation mode of “industry + investment” has been opened, and one of the important means is real estate management. According to the financial report, from 2014 to 2016 and from January to September 2017, the revenue of the real estate sector accounted for 13.77%, 10.34%, 42.48% and 58.29% of the main business income of Seven Wolf Group, respectively.
The results of relative diversification investment only allowed Seven Wolves to increase their revenue slightly in 2018, and their profitability was far less than that year, and returning to the peak was obviously a long way for Seven Wolves.
five
wolf
wild, tyrannical, greedy, cruel;
The wolf is wild enough, the body is tough and fighting;
The wolf is violent enough, does not achieve the goal, and vows not to give up;
The wolf nature is greedy enough, greedy to pursue, tireless;
The wolf is crippled, fearless and merciless!
And “love to fight to win” is the character in the bones of Jinjiang people, from the small-town workshop to the first stock of men’s clothing, the success of the seven wolves not only grasps the dividends of reform and opening up, but also inseparable from Zhou Shaoxiong’s wolf nature.
The times can pick up a person, and they can easily abandon a person.
The seven wolves of the future, can they still kill the scenery of the past? Can you win back the hearts of men?
Let’s wait and see!
Resources:
The front page of the brand “Seven wolves, why was it abandoned by men?” 》、
China Business News “Seven Wolves Wandering in the Men’s Wear Industry”,
China Economic Network “Jacket King Seven Wolves Fall from the Peak! Can the road of self-help return to the top?