In the student days of many post-80s and post-90s, it can be said that it is a face-saving thing to wear a "non-ordinary" Metersbonwe endorsed by Jay Chou. However, in recent years, the former "king of pedestrian streets" Meibang clothing is no longer beautiful, not only selling houses to survive, such as closing the largest Metersbonwe store on Yan'an Road in Hangzhou as early as 2021. In the third quarter of 2023, Meibang's main revenue decreased by 13.49%. As of the close of trading on January 5, Meibang was at 1.65 yuan per share, down 1.2%.
On the evening of January 5, Meibang once again ushered in market attention with an announcement. In the evening, Meibang announced that it had received a written resignation report from Chairman Hu Jiajia, who resigned from a series of positions such as chairman and director of the company's sixth board of directors for personal reasons. After his resignation, Hu Jiajia will continue to serve as the company's president.
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.
Does this mean that Meibang is ushering in a personnel change of defense with the second generation giving way and the founder returning?
The second generation took over for 7 years, with a cumulative loss of more than 3.1 billion yuan
He was also restricted from spending for unpaid rent
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.
In November 2016, Meibang Apparel announced that the company's board of directors elected Hu Jiajia, the daughter of Zhou Chengjian, as the chairman of Shanghai Metersbonwe Clothing Co., Ltd., and Zhou Chengjian, the founder and former chairman of the company, no longer held the company's position. According to Hu Jiajia's resume released by Meibang's financial report, she was born in 1986, Chinese nationality, and has a postgraduate degree. He graduated in Marketing from Aston University in 2010 and obtained a Master's degree in Fashion Marketing from Istituto Marangoni in London in 2011.
In the seven years since Hu Jiajia took over Meibang, Meibang has continuously emphasized the youthful tonality of the brand, such as launching several series of brands including ME&CIYT, Moomoo, ME&CITY KIDS, CH'IN, upgrading offline channels, laying out shopping malls, and using smart retail to carry out supply chain reforms. However, because the positioning of Meibang company and products is not clear, even if popular traffic stars such as Guan Xiaotong, Huang Minghao, and Song Weilong are frequently invited to endorse, Hu Jiajia still has not completely changed the situation of Meibang clothing'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. After Hu Jiajia took over, the company's financial report showed that the cumulative loss exceeded 3.1 billion yuan.
Hu Jiajia, who is considered to have taken over "a mess", has also frequently appeared on Weibo hot searches in recent years.
On June 28, 2020, Metersbonwe was restricted from spending due to unpaid rent. According to the consumption restriction order issued by the Shanghai Huangpu District People's Court, on September 10, 2019, the court filed a case of enforcement of the applicants, Lin Huakang and Mao Weihong, who applied for the enforcement of the housing lease contract dispute of Meibang Apparel. Due to the failure of Meibang Apparel to perform the payment obligations determined by the effective legal documents within the period specified in the enforcement notice, in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations, consumption restriction measures were taken against Meibang Apparel, restricting Meibang Apparel and Hu Jiajia (legal representative, main person in charge, directly responsible personnel affecting the performance of debts, and actual controller) from carrying out high-consumption and non-essential consumption behaviors for life and work.
Not long ago, on the evening of December 26, 2023, Meibang Apparel Co., Ltd. and Hu Jiajia, chairman and president, also received a decision on administrative supervision measures issued by the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau. The reason is that from May 2018 to December 2019, Meibang provided financial assistance to new franchisees with high financial pressure to pay for their store rent and decoration investment, with a maximum daily balance of 228 million yuan, accounting for 8.14% of the company's latest audited net assets at the time of occurrence, and the unrecovered balance as of September 30, 2023 was 43.9985 million yuan.
Founder Zhou Chengjian
16 years ago, he was the richest man in China's clothing industry
In fact, looking back at the history of Meibang clothing all the way to development, it can be seen that as early as three years before Hu Jiajia took office (2013), Meibang clothing has begun to decline.
Since 2013, the profit attributable to the parent company of Meibang Apparel has declined sharply. Financial data show that in 2013, the net profit of Meibang clothing fell sharply from 850 million yuan in the previous year to 405 million yuan.
But before that, Metersbonwe, which was founded in Wenzhou in the 90s of the last century, had a glorious corporate history. Meibang has invited big names such as Aaron Kwok, Jay Chou, and Lin Chiling as celebrity spokespersons, and the asset-light operation model of founder Zhou Chengjian was once regarded as a classic operation case by the business school.
In 2008, Meibang Apparel was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and Zhou Chengjian also became the richest man in China's clothing industry with a wealth of 17 billion yuan. At the listing ceremony, Zhou Chengjian sent a small gold-plated sewing machine to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, he said, "I was first a tailor in a village, and now I am fortunate to be a tailor in China, and I hope to become a global tailor in the future." Zhou Chengjian also took the foreign fast fashion brand ZARA as a role model, hoping that Meibang can surpass it in the future.
THIS YEAR, MEIBANG ALSO SPENT 5 MILLION YUAN TO INVITE WENTWORTH MILLER, THE MALE PROTAGONIST OF "PRISON BREAK", TO BE THE SPOKESPERSON OF ITS NEW FASHION BRAND ME&CITY. In the 2009 annual idol hit drama "Let's Go to See Meteor Shower", the heroine Chu Yuxing's line "Duanmu took me to Metersbonwe" is enough to show the national recognition of Meibang.
From 2008 to 2010, Zhou Chengjian became the richest man on the Hurun clothing rich list for three consecutive years, and his wealth in 2010 was as high as 21.6 billion yuan. But soon, Meibang was strongly attacked by overseas fast fashion clothing brand giants. Foreign fast fashion brands represented by ZARA, Uniqlo and H&M have settled in China, and a number of Taobao brands incubated by Taobao have also appeared on e-commerce platforms, such as Inman and Handu Yishe. Meibang does not have too many advantages in the style of design, the quality of clothes and the price, coupled with the high inventory of Meibang clothing, which has laid the groundwork for the later development crisis of Meibang.
In fact, as early as 2010, the inventory balance of Meibang Apparel has reached 2.548 billion yuan, accounting for 30% of the total assets. However, this issue did not attract Zhou Chengjian's attention. In 2014, he also said: "How much inventory is static in any company today is not a fatal challenge for enterprises, and another 3 billion, the Chinese market is huge, and it is easy to digest it in a year." ”
In addition, after the launch of the high-end series ME&CITY, which invited supermodel Liu Wen as the spokesperson, it also failed to achieve the expected break-even, and the loss dragged down the performance of Meibang Apparel. In addition, the Youfan App launched by Meibang in 2015 (which was named "Wonderful Story" for three consecutive seasons) did not attract strong market attention, and it was offline after two years, and it was also announced that Meibang was not successful in touching the Internet.
In 2016, Zhou Chengjian abruptly left the company he founded and his daughter Hu Jiajia became the chairman, a move that shook the entire clothing industry.
“卖楼回血”、“卖股回血”
After the eldest daughter Hu Jiajia took over Meibang Clothing, Zhou Chengjian was silent for a long time, and it was not until 2018 that he began to gradually return.
However, the losses of Meibang Apparel continued. In 2019, Meibang lost 825 million yuan. In 2020, Meibang Apparel suffered a loss of 859 million yuan. Zhou Chengjian began to sell assets continuously to turn the situation around.
In March 2021, Meibang sold Shanghai Model Gong Industrial Co., Ltd. The company's main asset is a 38,000-square-meter property in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, where the Milbank Fashion Museum and Design Center is located.
In June 2021, Meibang sold its 10.1% stake in Shanghai Huarui Bank held by Meibang for 424 million yuan.
In December 2022, Meibang sold a shop in Guiyang City. Previously, Meibang had sold a shop in Wuhan. In June 2023, Meibang sold two more shops in Shenyang City for 300 million yuan. The buyers of these shops are all Youngor, a veteran clothing company in Zhejiang.
According to the third quarter report of 2023, the net profit of Meibang Apparel is 41.64 million yuan, and it has finally turned losses into profits.
Registered a company in Hangzhou to transform into a live broadcast e-commerce
However, "selling real estate to return blood" is not a long-term solution, the former Zhejiang clothing giant has to find some long-term operation, and its main business is combined, live broadcast has become a way out.
In August 2022, Metersbonwe issued an open letter, pointing out that in 2023, the company will focus on the layout of online direct sales channels and franchise channels, and operate and implement the financial profit and loss goal of turning losses into profits as soon as possible. Focusing on this goal, Metersbonwe has "revived" through the sale of its assets on the one hand, and actively deployed the live streaming business on the other hand.
According to the company's information, in June 2023, two new entities will be established, Hangzhou Meterss Digital Industry Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Meterss Digital Industry Co., Ltd., with the former registered address in Hangzhou and the latter registered address in Lishui.
It is understood that the headquarters of Metersbonwe Hangzhou is located in Huaye Building at the intersection of Jiangnan Avenue and Jianye Road in Binjiang District. Metersbonwe has rented five floors here. Not far from Huaye Building, about 1.3 kilometers away is the headquarters of live broadcast e-commerce Qianxun. In addition, Binjiang District has also gathered many head MCNs such as Chenfan, Make a Friend, and Xinxuan, and formed a significant industrial agglomeration effect.
After only five months of e-commerce operation, on the day of Double 11 in 2023, the internal official account of Meibang Clothing released a tweet in the tone of "Zhou Chengjian". In addition to explaining to the outside world that "this year's founder Zhou Chengjian returned to the business and went deep into the field of content e-commerce as a Xi learner and practitioner", the article also released a signal to the outside world - the founder Zhou Chengjian said that he would continue to make "good products", "good content" and "good experience", continue to Xi learn and continue to grow, and return to consumers based on ingenuity and with a comprehensive upgrade of Meibang.
If the 59-year-old Zhou Chengjian returns to the helm of Meibang, can he lead this national clothing brand with a history of 29 years of development back to its former glory? Can the live broadcast of e-commerce help Meibang to save itself? Perhaps, it still needs the test of time.