You may not have heard of it, but the lingerie company went public today.
On May 31, the investment community reported that Aimer Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Aimer Shares) was officially listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In this IPO, the issue price of Aimer shares was 20.99 yuan, and the opening price rose rapidly, and the latest market value exceeded 12 billion yuan.
The founder of Aimer is a post-60s Suzhou man - Zhang Rongming. Before founding Aimo, Zhang Rongming was teaching at Shougang University, and by chance, he came into contact with the memory alloy bra project, which is related to one of the hardest components in underwear , the bra bottom bracket. Zhang Rongming immediately decided to go to the sea to engage in business, and in 1992 took over the predecessor of Aimer Shares. The products he brought filled the domestic gap and quickly gained a foothold in the market, now selling 3.3 billion yuan a year.
In 2017, Aimer Shares, which has become the industry leader, won the only round of financing, behind which a number of investors such as Jiahua Capital, Zhonghai Investment, and Chenhui Capital were gathered. Among them, founder Zhang Rongming's old acquaintance Jiahua Capital is the largest external investor. According to the market value of 12 billion, the Zhang Rongming family is worth 8.5 billion yuan.
The lingerie track where Aimer is located is undergoing a major reshuffle. When the old underwear has declined, cutting-edge local brands have begun to emerge - new underwear brands such as Inside and Outside, Banana, Ubras and other new underwear brands have risen strongly, round after round of financing, behind Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Today Capital, Qiming Venture Capital, GGV Jiyuan Capital, Yuansheng Capital and other well-known VCs gathered. Hundreds of billions of underwear rivers and lakes, a good drama is being staged.
Post-60s Suzhou men sell underwear:
Thirty years later, he finally gained a public company
Behind Aimer shares, there is a post-60s from Suzhou.
Born in 1962 in Wujiang, Suzhou, Zhang Rongming became a "little boss" when he was young: he went to the river at night to catch yellow eels, sold them at the market the next day, earned a few cents, and then ate a bowl of noodles and went home. That's when the seeds of entrepreneurship were planted.
In 1980, at the age of 18, Zhang Rongming was admitted to the Beijing Iron and Steel Institute, which later became the University of Science and Technology Beijing. In those years at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, Zhang Rongming was a major in metallurgy and chemistry, and when he was a graduate student, the project was a coating project, and after graduation, he was assigned to teach at Shougang University, continued his research, and came into contact with the business of coated blades. In 1991, Zhang Rongming obtained his first pot of gold through the development of high-strength metalworking coated blades.
These seemingly "hard" projects are not unrelated to the underwear industry he will engage in in the future. In the process of making coated blades, by chance, Zhang Rongming came into contact with the project of the memory alloy bra, which was related to one of the hardest components in the underwear - the bra bottom bracket.
At that time, the trend of freedom and openness blew into the women's clothing industry, irrigating a red sea of women's underwear. Zheng Mintai, known as the "father of Modern Underwear in China", launched Anlifang in Hong Kong as early as 1975, and the wave of underwear finally swept to Beijing in the 1990s, and Zhang Rongming also waited for the opportunity to start a business.
In 1991, he developed an ultra-elastic memory alloy bra bottom bracket, but no underwear factory was willing to buy his product, so he decided to produce it himself. In 1992, Zhang Rongming took over the Beijing Huamei Fashion Factory, a garment factory established in 1981 and the predecessor of Aimer Shares. After that, Zhang Rongming began to formally mass-produce underwear, and in 1993, the "Aimer" brand was officially launched, filling the gap in the underwear market at that time.
In this way, this young man, who once knew very little about underwear brands, accidentally opened a picture of the lingerie empire. At present, Aimer shares have gradually expanded from the women's underwear business to men, children, sports and other segments, and the main brands have included Aimer, Mr. Aimer, Aimer, Aimer Children, Mulan and Lankan.
Coincidentally, the founders of several major domestic underwear brand giants are men. Just three years after the launch of the Aimer brand, in 1996, Lin Shengzhi and Lin Shengjiang brothers established Manifold Clothing Company in Shantou, specializing in underwear production, which is the predecessor of Huijie Shares, the first underwear company listed in A-shares; in 1998, Zheng Yaonan from Fujian founded Urban Beauty; in 1999, Bao Hongsheng, Zhao Qiang, and Zhou Feng, three entrepreneurs, entered the women's underwear market and established Tingmei.
Zhang Rongming is one of the earliest people in Chinese mainland to eat crabs. Today, he has led aimed at the successful IPO of Aimer Shares, with a market value of more than 12 billion yuan.
Sold $3.3 billion a year and completed only one round of funding
Why did they invest in lingerie companies
How does a small piece of underwear support the market value of tens of billions?
In the 23 years since its birth, Aimer has long evolved into a leading enterprise in the intimate apparel industry, and the product portfolio has gradually expanded from simple bras and underwear in the early days to warm clothes, home wear, socks, home textiles, protective masks and other categories. From 2017 to 2019, Aimer, Langkavan and Mr. Aimer under Aimer ranked first in the comprehensive market share of women's underwear, high-end women's underwear and men's underwear respectively.
According to the prospectus, from 2017 to 2019, the operating income of Aimer Shares was 2.947 billion yuan, 3.119 billion yuan and 3.318 billion yuan, respectively. While the revenue continues to grow, the profit of Aimer shares is declining, and the net profit is 556 million yuan, 449 million yuan and 334 million yuan respectively in the same period.
On the Hurun Report, Aimer founder Zhang Rongming's wealth also shrank at one point, from 4.2 billion in 2019 to 3.5 billion in 2020. Regarding the decline in net profit, Aimer co., Ltd. explained in the prospectus: Mainly due to the company's gradual transformation and upgrading of its brands since 2018, while increasing investment in brand promotion, channel construction, product research and development.
Previously, due to the impact of Internet e-commerce, the underwear industry has just ushered in a major reshuffle, and the bankruptcy of Victoria's Secret, the originator of global "sexy lingerie", has sounded the alarm for the industry. Over the years, the old underwear companies have had some difficulties. Declining profits, layoffs, slow sales of inventories... In this case, the development space of Aimer shares has also been questioned by the outside world. Wanting to tell a good underwear story in the secondary market is not easy for Amu at present.
Along the way, Aimer has only received one round of financing, which has gathered a number of investors such as CAV Capital, Zhonghai Investment, and Chenhui Capital, of which CGM capital is the largest external investor.
As early as more than a decade ago, Song Xiangqian, the founder of Gahua Capital, met Zhang Rongming, a Suzhou entrepreneur who had taught in colleges and universities, who left a deep impression on Song Xiangqian, "a typical high-level intellectual, a person with IQ, emotional intelligence, and American business." At that time, CAV Capital has always been optimistic about China's high-end underwear market: people's income has increased, their spending power has risen, and people need higher quality things, which is the new consumption potential that most represents consumer changes." In May 2017, Canada Capital officially invested in Aimer shares.
Also as one of the very few external shareholders of Aimer Shares, Lu Zhong, founding partner of Zhonghai Investment, believes that in the intergenerational switching of consumer groups, the decision-making priorities of young consumer groups have changed: from personal preferences→ KOL recommendation → trend, traditional brands such as Aimer Shares will become a great brand that constantly adapts to the needs of consumption upgrading through Internet upgrading.
According to the prospectus, Zhang Rongming directly holds 46.8% of the shares, directly and indirectly controls 70.11% of the company's shares, according to the current market value of 12 billion yuan, Zhang Rongming's personal net worth of more than 8 billion yuan.
Another wave of local lingerie companies was born
VC giants gathered, Sequoia and Xu Xin all came
What is the situation in today's lingerie jianghu?
Aimer has become the fourth listed underwear brand in China after Urban Beauty, Huijie Andi and Anlifang Holdings. The "older generation" underwear brands are not all smooth sailing, urban beauty once became the number one brand in the market share with more than 8,000 stores, but in 2020, it lost 118 million yuan, which has long been eclipsed.
Another overseas lingerie giant, Victoria's Secret, whose Uk branch was repeatedly forced into bankruptcy in 2020, and the parent company L Brands was sold to a private equity fund. Victoria's Secret entered the Chinese market around 2015, disrupting the market landscape dominated by local brands in lingerie.
Now, more and more new players are emerging in this jianghu, such as Inside and Outside, Banana, Ubras, Milk Candy Pie and so on. Cutting-edge local brands ushered in the window period, at the same time, Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Today Capital, Qiming Venture Capital, Zhen Fund and other VCs have also arrived.
Why are investment institutions here? Like many consumer brands today, underwear has also experienced the absolute heat of the capital market. In November last year, the brand Banana, which was established in 2015, won a series A investment of hundreds of millions of yuan from Yuansheng Capital, with a post-investment valuation of 2.5 billion yuan, becoming the most valued underwear company in the new category at that time.
Many people think that its valuation is too high, and Peng Zhijian, the founding partner of Yuansheng Capital, believes that the "broad market of men's underwear brands involved in the business of Banana, with the possibility of giving birth to super brands, should be firmly invested." Such an idea is exactly what many investors who invest in underwear brands agree, and one FA once said to the outside world, "Every investor who has contacted the banana team is very determined." ”
Neiwai, which has been on fire in the past two years due to Faye Wong's endorsement, was actually born in 2014, and in 2015, it got 10 million yuan of angel investment from Zhen Fund. Up to now, this underwear brand has received a total of 7 rounds of financing, and investors also include Qifu Capital, Xiangfeng Investment, Huaqiang Capital, Qiming Venture Capital, Bee Qiao Capital, etc.
Why are people flocking to the lingerie track? A VC partner in Beijing who pays attention to underwear brands summed up to the investment community: "1, the underwear track is at least 100 billion, is a huge market; 2, the rise of a new generation of consumers, to the new underwear consumer brand has brought opportunities, people's pursuit has changed; 3, this group of entrepreneurs are not the same, either have deep experience, or can talk with young people more, and can make good use of new marketing methods." ”
Ubras, which was founded in 2016, is full of big investors behind it. In 2018, Today Capital invested 50 million yuan exclusively in Ubras, and in September 2020, Today Capital joined hands with Sequoia China to invest in the B+ round, and in January 2021, IDG Capital entered the market. Less well known is that Ubras' founder, Yu Ya, was a former marketing manager at Ami. What is more interesting is that in 2010, Today Capital invested heavily in Urban Beauty, and 8 years later, Xu Xin chose Ubras.
The 100 billion underwear jianghu is just a microcosm of the current hot consumption track. China's consumer brands are in a stage of alternating between the old and the new, and a wave of super era of consumption rise has struck, which is also the golden age of the rise of Chinese brands. Now that Aimer is on the market, the new story of China's underwear has just begun.