On January 10, 2022, a news appeared on the official website of Amalfon Sports Group, the parent company of Songtuo Suunto, a well-known outdoor sports watch brand in Northern Europe:
The spin-off of Songtuo to Dongguan Liesheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., from China, is expected to close in the first half of 2022.
Dongguan Hunter Sound Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. may not be familiar to everyone, this company started from wireless Bluetooth headphones, the most important is Bluetooth headphones.
The industrial and commercial registration shows that this company was founded in 2015, the company's commodity brand is Haylou (hey), its nearly two years began to get involved in smart wear, the company's smart watches are very cheap, the price is only about 100-400 yuan, the most expensive watch Haylou RS3 price is only 429 yuan, although the price is quite attractive, from the appearance and function point of view, it is not lost to the current price of one or two thousand mainstream watches.
Haylou watch features include: 21 days of battery life, oxygen saturation detection, heart rate monitoring, sleep monitoring, support for 14 sports mode recording, 50 meters waterproof, etc., the main cost performance seems to be Haylou's biggest advantage, the watch to do the price of the bracelet, this is the strategy of hunting sound.
Haylou smartwatches are extremely inexpensive
Amalfin Sports Group yesterday released on its official website the news that Songtuo is about to be acquired by a Chinese company, and the following is a Chinese translation of its English news, which may not be very accurate, but the meaning is basically clear:
Suunto, as a world-renowned manufacturer of sports watches, diving computers and precision instruments, is not a core concern of the Amalfent Group.
After careful review, the parent company concluded that owners like Hunter Sound, who have a foundation in technology and R&D, want to unleash Suunto's full potential. We believe this deal is ideal for all parties.
Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Amalfven Sports Group was founded in 1950.
Although Amer fin includes many well-known professional sports brands, its essence is not a professional sports equipment company, but more like a sports investment company that constantly "buys and sells" assets, including salons with Salomon (Salomon), Arc'teryx (Archaeopteryx), Atomic (Atomik), Suunto (Songtuo), Wilson (Wilson) and other outdoor, sports, clothing, shoes, accessories brands.
In 2019, ANTA Sports completed the acquisition of Amalfin and held 98.11% of the shares of Amalfn, which also aroused heated discussion and concern in the domestic sports industry that year.
At the end of 2020, less than two years after the acquisition of Amalfon, ANTA Sports chose to sell assets and improve cash flow under the continuous loss.
First of all, on December 22, 2020, ANTA Sports announced that it intends to sell its assets, Precor, a well-known sports equipment brand in the United States, to Peloton. Amalfin's sale of the asset package will recover $360 million in cash and a net profit of approximately $20 million.
In this regard, industry insiders believe that the Amalfin stores previously acquired by ANTA Sports are mainly concentrated in overseas markets, encountered the impact of the epidemic, the operation may be greatly impacted, under the risk, the company sold some assets to achieve cashback.
The ANTA brand said that during the epidemic period, it sold non-core assets at a better price to obtain $360 million in net cash, further improved cash flow, concentrated resources in areas with better asset efficiency, focused on brands such as Archaeopteryx, Salomon and Wilson, and was committed to building them into "1 billion euros" brands.
Why was Songtuo acquired?
The brand was born in 1936 when Finnish engineer and outdoor enthusiast Tuomas Vohlonen invented the world's first liquid compass, creating the SUUNTO brand.
SUUNTO's first order was to produce compasses for the Finnish army, in 1965, SUUNTO's first underwater diving compass was born, and in 1987, the world's first diving watch was developed, so Songto's proud slogan is from the top of the mountain to the abyss of the deep sea, which is also destined to be the gene of Songto's expertise in the field of outdoor extreme sports.
Songtuo currently has a good reputation in the fields of mountaineering, hiking, orienteering, cross-country, diving, skiing, cycling, triathlon, navigation and other sports, and Songtuo gives the impression that it is playing pure outdoors, and it is still dependent on it to achieve high-precision positioning.
Of course, running also belongs to the category of outdoor sports in the broad sense, but outdoor sports in the narrow sense refer more to the more niche cross-country, high-altitude mountaineering, triathlon and other fields.
Songtuo's watch series is also more numerous, including the entry-level Suunto 3 price point
Around 2000 yuan, the advanced Suunto 5, Suunto 7, Traverse Expedition, Spartan Spartan Spartan price is around 2000-3000 yuan, Suunto 9 is its flagship series, Ambit Takuno is not rich in functions, but its endurance is better than 9.
Songtuo has a long history, high quality, product price is more expensive, in the outdoor off-road circle enjoys a high reputation, many domestic and foreign off-road gods are using Songtuo is proof, but in the CASE THAT TECHNOLOGY IS very mature, many watches are compatible with a variety of GPS positioning systems, Songtuo's positioning accuracy seems to have no more obvious advantages, and it is also using firstbeat algorithm in road running.
Songtuo is a relatively niche brand overall, and its sales volume is not as good as That of Jiaming and domestic brands, even in the outdoor field, Jiaming and Goetzpartner are not small challenges.
In general, Songtuo enjoys a high reputation in the off-road field, many well-known off-road runners at home and abroad use watches are Songtuo, and its advantages in the field of road running with a larger crowd base are very limited, especially with the rise of domestic brands such as Huawei, Gao Chi and constantly innovating, the slower replacement of Songtuo gives people the feeling of an old dragon clock.
Songtuo is proud of its positioning precision advantage in the face of competitors constantly introducing innovative technologies such as suspension antennas, dual-frequency positioning, and athletics field mode, and there is no advantage, and its expensive price makes consumers who are more and more pursuing youthfulness and technological progress prohibitive, after all, feelings can not be eaten as a meal, in front of the price, everything is a brother.
On the one hand, Jiaming, Boneng, Apple and other international brands compete fiercely with each other, and more importantly, the rise of domestic brands has made international brands such as Songtuo feel great pressure.
In fact, Songtuo can not say that there is no replacement and renewal, but the pace of European brand research and development, the pace of doing things is much slower than in China, and the wisdom of Chinese coupled with diligence is the internal driving force for the rise of domestic products.
European veterans are acquired by domestic manufacturers in fact, it is not uncommon, this acquisition of Songtuo's Hunting Sound Electronics in the eyes of most people may not be known, Hunting Sound Electronics' Haylou brand main products for headphones, but compared to hundreds of yuan of Huawei wireless headphones are also much cheaper;
Hunter Sound Electronics is a millet ecological chain enterprise, and the so-called millet ecological chain enterprise refers to millet investment but not holding, millet output product methodology, values, provide all-round support, and ecological chain company to jointly define products, lead design, assist in research and development, endorsement of the supply chain, and the ecological chain enterprise itself is an independent company, so some people mistakenly think that millet acquired Songtuo, in fact, this is not the case.
After the completion of the acquisition of Songtuo, what impact will It have on Songtuo?
It remains to be seen.
At least Suunto's brand, products, services, business relationships and employee identities will remain unchanged, and Songtuo's research and development itself is in Europe, so it may be difficult for Hunter Electronics to directly learn Songtuo's technology in the short term.
And Hunter Sound Electronics has begun to get involved in the field of smart wear, its watches are really extremely cheap, which is also the typical style of Xiaomi ecological chain enterprises, with the help of Songtuo technology advantages, become a catfish in the smart wearable market, I believe this is also the ambition of Hunting Sound.
After being acquired by domestic manufacturers, we will wait and see whether Songtuo will accelerate research and development, revitalize by a slightly dull old brand, or continue to develop and launch products step by step according to the temper of Europeans!
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