Red Star Capital Bureau noted that Vimax Industrial (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Vimax") officially submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on February 8, and the joint sponsors are ABC International and BNP PARIBAS.
According to the prospectus, Vimax is an oral care product provider with two core brands, Saky and SakyKids, mainly developing and selling adult and children's basic oral care products, electric oral care products and professional oral care products.
The loss for the first nine months of 2021 was nearly 500 million
According to the prospectus, Vimax aims to improve consumer oral health and hygiene through one-stop and diversified products, mainly developing and selling a diversified oral care product portfolio covering four major oral care product categories, namely adult basic oral care, children's basic oral care, electric oral care and professional oral care.
According to Frost & Sullivan, Vichy ranks fourth in the Chinese oral care market with a market share of 5.3% in terms of retail sales of all oral care products in 2020.
In addition, Vimax has established a leading position in several sub-product categories of the oral care products market. Vichy is the largest provider of children's oral care products in China, with a market share of 20.4% (in terms of retail sales in 2020). Vichy has the highest market share among Whitening toothpaste brands in China, at 11.3% (in terms of retail sales in 2020). At the same time, with a market share of 4.3%, it ranks fourth in China's electric oral care market.
In terms of financial data, the prospectus shows that as of September 30, 2019, 2020 and 2021, Vimax's revenue was 1.662 billion yuan, 1.616 billion yuan and 1.23 billion yuan, respectively, gross profit was 894 million yuan, 939 million yuan and 772 million yuan, and net profit for the same period was 50.49 million yuan, 211 million yuan and -494 million yuan, respectively. Vichy's loss for the period was due to a change in carrying amount of $574 million in the current period.
Vimax said in the prospectus that the net proceeds from the IPO will be used for online and offline brand building; product research and development activities and strengthening of R&D capabilities; strengthening offline sales and distribution networks and market penetration; equity investment in high-quality niche oral care brands; strengthening business digitization and optimizing information technology infrastructure; and for working capital and general corporate purposes.
It has been questioned that marketing costs are too high
According to the prospectus, Vimax has established a comprehensive and extensive omni-channel sales and distribution network.
As of September 30, 2021, Vimax's online channels include 32 self-operated online stores and 48 online distributors, and in terms of offline channels, Vimax cooperates with 602 offline distributors, covering 22 provinces, 4 municipalities directly under the central government and 5 autonomous regions in China. In addition, Vimax has 32 major customers, covering walmarts, Carrefour, RT-Mart and other national and regional hypermarkets and supermarkets.
According to the prospectus, as of September 30, 2019, 2020 and September 30, 2021, the revenue of Vimax online channels accounted for 37.9%, 41.7% and 43.3%, respectively; the revenue of major customer channels accounted for 25.9%, 29.3% and 23.5% respectively; and the revenue of offline channels accounted for 36.2%, 29.0% and 33.2% respectively.
According to the "China Times" report, for the sales strategy of Shuke, Cao Ruian, co-founder of Vimax, once said: "When many brands are rushing to invest in TV ads to occupy the minds of consumers, Shuke is asking shopping guides to conduct experience marketing for customers one by one. Although online e-commerce channels have become an important marketing part of many merchants, industry insiders pointed out that offline supermarket channels are still an indispensable part, and Shuke toothpaste will account for a higher proportion of marketing expenses due to factors such as "entry fees".
According to the data, in 2019, 2020 and the first three months of 2021, the company's sales and distribution expenses were 734 million yuan, 631 million yuan and 508 million yuan, accounting for 44.2%, 39.1% and 41.3% of the company's total revenue in the current period, respectively. Among them, offline channels have the largest promotion expenditure, accounting for about 40% of the company's sales expenses.
Public information shows that Beckham, Li Bingbing and a former top stream who has been imprisoned have all been spokespeople for Shuke. Behind the star endorsement, it is a lot of money.
The preemptive registration of trademarks was publicly defended by the "fairy tale king"
Vichy founded the Shuke brand in 2006 and later launched the Shuke Baby brand in 2015.
It is worth noting that in 2018, Wei Meizi was publicly defended by the "fairy tale king" Zheng Yuanjie.
In 2015, Vichy registered "Shuk" as a toothpaste trademark, and Zheng Yuanjie created the fairy tale "Shuk and Beta" as early as 1982, "Shuk" is her original literary character name.
On December 4, 2018, Zheng Yuanjie said on Weibo that he had submitted an application to the State Trademark Review and Adjudication Board, arguing that Vichy had maliciously preemptively registered the "Shuk" trademark and infringed its intellectual property rights.
In September 2019, the State Intellectual Property Office declared the trademark of "Shuk" toothpaste registered by Vimax invalid. In October 2019, Vimax brought the State Intellectual Property Office to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court.
After three years, in September 2021, Vimax submitted a letter of withdrawal to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, and the State Intellectual Property Office's ruling on the invalidity of Vichy's "Shuk" toothpaste trademark came into effect.
Only recently, this "rights protection storm" has officially come to an end.
On January 6, 2022, Zheng Yuanjie said on Weibo: "672 infringing trademarks have decreased by 1! And announced that Vichy has been authorized to use the name and image of "Shuk Beta" to promote the sale of domestic children's oral care products.
On the morning of February 10, Zheng Yuanjie also forwarded the China Securities News's report on Weibo about Vichy's upcoming listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, saying that "by respecting intellectual property rights, enterprises can develop healthily." ”
Red Star News reporter Yu Yao Tan Xinchi
Edited by Yu Dongmei
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