Meibang clothing, which "does not take the usual path", began to seek a way to break the game. After seven years and one month as the chairman of Meibang Apparel, Hu Jiajia submitted his resignation to the board of directors.
The daughter gave way and the father returned
Meibang clothing personnel change
On the evening of January 5, Meibang announced that Hu Jiajia, chairman of the company, submitted his resignation for personal reasons, including chairman, director, member of the nomination committee, member of the remuneration and assessment committee and chairman of the strategy committee. After resigning from the above positions, Hu Jiajia will continue to serve as the company's president.
As of the disclosure date of this announcement, Hu Jiajia held 225 million shares of the company, accounting for 8.96% of the company's total share capital, about 370 million yuan according to the latest market value. According to other data, Hu Jiajia's annual salary is 720,000 yuan.
It is worth noting that another announcement issued on the same day showed that at the eighth meeting of the sixth board of directors of Meibang Apparel, the company's founder Zhou Chengjian was considered and approved as a candidate for non-independent director of the company's sixth board of directors. On the same day, Meibang Apparel reviewed and approved the company's "Proposal on Convening the Second Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders in 2024", and agreed that the company would hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on January 22, 2024.
Zhou Chengjian is the executive director and actual controller of Shanghai Huafu Investment Co., Ltd., the controlling shareholder of Meibang Apparel, that is, the actual controller of Meibang Apparel, he does not directly hold the company's shares, and Hu Jiajia is a father-daughter relationship.
In terms of resume, Zhou Chengjian, male, Chinese nationality, from Lishui, Zhejiang, graduated from EMBA of Zhejiang University, began to do business on his own in May 1984, opened the first Metersbonwe store in Wenzhou in 1995, and implemented brand chain management;
The number of stores fell below 1,000
In the seven years since she took over, the company has a cumulative net loss of nearly 3.2 billion yuan
As the eldest daughter of Zhou Chengjian, the founder of Meibang Apparel, Hu Jiajia worked in the President's Office, Metersbonwe Footwear Development and Operation Department, Brand Marketing Department, and Strategic Development Department from 2011 to 2016.
At the end of 2016, Hu Jiajia became the chairman of Meibang, which had been losing money for more than a year at that time, and Hu Jiajia was also considered to have taken over "a mess".
After taking over, Meibang Apparel launched five major style series brands, upgraded offline channels, laid out shopping malls, and used smart retail to carry out supply chain reforms, but these did not change the situation of Meibang Apparel's loss. From 2017 to 2022, the company's revenue decreased from 6.472 billion yuan to 1.439 billion yuan, and the revenue in the first three quarters of 2023 was 837 million yuan, and the company's net profit continued to lose money for four years from 2019 to 2022.
According to the Daily Economic News, Meibang clothing went downhill and began in 2013. After the number of stores reached a high of 5,220 in 2013, the number of stores of Meibang Apparel showed a cliff-like decline. According to the latest financial report data, as of the first half of 2023, the number of stores of Meibang Apparel has fallen below 1,000, of which the number of directly operated stores has decreased to 26, and the number of franchised stores has decreased to 899.
According to incomplete statistics, in the more than 7 years since Hu Jiajia took over, the cumulative loss of net profit attributable to the parent company of Meibang Apparel is nearly 3.2 billion yuan.
Zhou Chengjian couldn't sit still
Meibang clothing made a live broadcast
As it continued to fall into the quagmire of losses, closing stores and selling money to survive once became a lifesaver for Meibang clothing.
In order to return funds, Meibang has repeatedly sold store real estate and investment targets. Although quite a few assets were sold, it still didn't help.
Or based on this unsolvable situation, Zhou Chengjian, who has been out of office for many years, can't sit still.
In fact, rumors of the "return of the founder" have been in place since last year. In 2023, Meibang Apparel will begin to test the waters frequently in the e-commerce field, and has sold assets many times to raise funds for e-commerce transformation. Behind a series of changes, Zhou Chengjian's figure appeared frequently.
In March 2023, Zhou Chengjian began to plan matters related to live broadcast e-commerce, and then quickly determined that the e-commerce headquarters was located in Hangzhou, and launched talent recruitment in April.
On June 7 and 12, 2023, Hangzhou Meterss Digital Industry Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Meterss Digital Industry Co., Ltd. were registered. The legal representative, general manager and executive director of the two e-commerce live broadcast companies are Zhou Chengjian, the founder of Meibang Apparel, with a registered capital of 10 million yuan.
People inside Meibang Apparel once said that Zhou Chengjian's previous series of actions can be regarded as a foreshadowing for returning to listed companies now.
Zhou Chengjian, who retired from the background in 2016, is now back to handle the new business, which is enough to see Meibang's determination to return to the top.
What does it mean for founder Zhou Chengjian to come back to the mountain?
Now, the second generation has given way and the parents have returned, what are the considerations behind the personnel change of Meibang Apparel?
According to Beijing Business Daily, Wu Daiqi, CEO of Shenzhen Siqisheng Company, said that the founder returned again, to a certain extent, indicating that the succession of the second generation is not smooth, and it may not be ideal in terms of business direction and strategic thinking. In other words, there is no way to adapt to the development direction of the entire industry, so that the performance of the decline and loss of the situation. However, there is still uncertainty about whether the return of the founder can bring improvement to the brand, especially in the past two years, when the development of short video live streaming has had a great impact on the real economy.
Cheng Weixiong, a senior brand management expert and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., has his own views on the "return of Zhou Chengjian" - Zhou Chengjian has always been there. In fact, since Mr. Zhou Chengjian stepped down as chairman in 2016, he has been participating in the operation and management of Meibang Apparel as the actual controller of Meibang Apparel, so there is no return of the founder, because Mr. Zhou Chengjian has not left. ”
After all, there is little left of the original offline physical channel advantage of Meibang clothing, and the direct stores are closed, and the development of franchisees is also weak. Cheng added.
Regardless of whether Zhou Chengjian left or not, judging from the current development of Meibang clothing, even if Zhou Chengjian personally went into battle, it would not be easy to restore growth or return to the previous momentum.
Now, with the release of the latest announcement of Meibang Clothing, Zhou Chengjian seems to be just one step away from returning to the helm of Meibang. However, whether the former star brands can regain the wave of e-commerce to save themselves still needs to be answered by time.
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