On March 29, the first share of the former sports brand, known as the "King of Chinese Shoes", was officially delisted.
At its peak, the share price of ST nobles once reached 69.37 yuan / share, and now, the stock price is fixed at 0.67 yuan / share.
Source: Guiren Bird Announcement
From 2008's "Noble Bird, No One Can Stop", to 2009's "Life is a Kind of Sport", and then to 2010's "Happy Sports", Noble Bird has also led the fashion of the shoe circle and become the youth memory of a generation.
Until the news of Guirenniao's delisting spread, people were still in a trance: "The quality is still okay, why did it fall." ”
According to some statistics, it took 12 years for Guirenniao to reach its peak from its birth, and it only took 5 years for it to go from a market value of 40 billion yuan to a forced reorganization.
What happened to the noble bird who can't wait for the "nobleman"?
Delisting and losses have become popular discussion words for Guirenniao at the moment/Source: Weibo
In 1988, the Hokkien song "Love Fight to Win" became popular all over the country overnight.
As sung in the song, many Fujian businessmen firmly believe that "three points are destined, seven points depend on hard work, and love to fight will win", and Lin Tianfu, the founder of Guirenniao, is one of them.
In 1987, Lin Tianfu began to work as a foundry to undertake the production needs of international sports brands. This way of starting is similar to sports brands such as Anta, Jordan, and Xtep.
At that time, the domestic market was like a huge order-taking factory, with fierce competition and ruthless bargaining.
Aware of the limitations of OEM, in 2002, Lin Tianfu decided to establish its own brand.
In 2004, Guirenniao Co., Ltd. was formally established to produce and sell all kinds of casual sports shoes.
According to the positioning, the Guirenniao brand is mainly engaged in fashionable, comfortable and elegant sports equipment, the main consumer group is 16-28 years old fashion sports enthusiasts, and the radiation range is 14-35 years old sports enthusiasts.
The spokespersons invited are all popular stars among young consumers/Source: E-commerce News
At that time, Guiren Bird, who was good at relying on celebrity effect marketing, sprung up in a brand.
At the beginning of the establishment of the brand, Guirenniao signed Andy Lau and Cecilia Cheung as spokespersons, and made generous moves.
In addition to the overwhelming endorsement advertisements, the fame of the noble bird also spread rapidly.
Andy Lau smiled at the Guiren Bird product image spokesperson press conference, "I didn't expect me to be so valuable"
In 2007, Guirenniao sponsored a number of phenomenal talent shows, which made it feel good among young consumer groups.
For example, Hunan Satellite TV's "Happy Boy", Dragon TV's "My Style, My Show", and Jiangsu Satellite TV's "Absolute Singing" have greater popularity among young people.
Source: Guiren Bird official website
In 2008, another turning point came, the holding of the Beijing Olympic Games, set off a national sports boom, and Guirenniao took advantage of the situation to expand.
In those years, the number of Guirenniao stores surged from 1,847 in 2009 to more than 5,000 in 2011.
To this day, some netizens still recall on social media: "When I bought my first pair of sneakers when I went to school, I bought a noble bird, which was fragrant." ”
"It was very popular in junior high and high school, and there were quite a lot of noble birds on the street, and at that time, it cost hundreds of yuan to do activities. ”
Under the good momentum of development, in 2014, Guirenniao was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and became the "first share of A-share sports brand".
Since then, the share price of Guirenniao has risen all the way, and its market value exceeded 40 billion yuan in 2015, reaching its peak.
During this period, the market value of sports brand enterprises such as Li Ning and 361 ° was less than 10 billion yuan, and Guirenniao could be described as "far ahead".
In 2015, Lin Tianfu also became the "richest man in Quanzhou" with a net worth of 19 billion yuan, far exceeding the 11.2 billion yuan of Ding Shizhong, the founder of Anta at that time.
Source: China News Weekly
It's a pity that the scenery of the noble bird did not last long.
After the peak, what was waiting for the noble bird was that the situation began to slide down like a car that could not be stopped.
"I, noble bird, have not been a big brother for many years. "After the development of the noble bird declined, some people ridiculed it like this.
In fact, the "big brother throne" of the noble bird did not sit for too long.
After the listing, in order to cope with the inventory crisis in the industry and solve the problem of a single main business, Guirenniao embarked on the road of acquisition, trying to develop from shoes and clothing to the whole sports industry.
Since 2012, Guirenniao's net profit has generally shown a downward trend
According to statistics, in 2015~2018, Guirenniao invested in and acquired a total of 12 companies.
Including the acquisition of Jiezhixing and Famous Shoe Library, investment in Spanish demand brokerage companies, and equity investment in sports portal Hupu, etc., covering sports-related communities, games, brokerage, insurance fields, as well as some niche sports brands, with a cumulative amount of more than 3 billion yuan.
The road of change of the noble bird is not easy.
In 2017, Guirenniao had intended to change its name to "All-Around Sports", but the announcement was unanimously rejected by the board of directors after only one day.
Similar operations do not surprise the receipt of "child's play" evaluation
The name "All-round Sports" may somewhat show Lin Tianfu's ambition, that is, to achieve rapid expansion through capital and become a sports industry group.
Such ambitions are also reflected in specific acquisitions.
In 2016, Guirenniao acquired the B2C e-commerce website Famous Shoe Library. At that time, in addition to the purchase amount, the top-level domain name s.cn purchased by the famous shoe library also caused heated discussions.
Source: Guiren Bird Announcement
Industry insiders analyzed this, "This may be a good match for the ambition of the noble bird, but it does not help its business much, it is more of a psychological satisfaction." ”
Facts have proved that in the accelerated expansion and layout, the ability of the noble bird is indeed unable to support the ambition.
Not only did it fail to become the "No. 1 company in the domestic sports industry", but it became a negative teaching material for the development of sports brands.
From 2015 to 2019, Guirenniao's net profit fell from 3.318 billion yuan to -1.018 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio increased from 50.6% to 87.2%.
It is widely believed in the industry that a debt-to-asset ratio of more than 70% will put a company in financial distress.
Regarding this stalled development, Lin Siping, the second-generation successor of Guirenniao, mentioned in the internal review-
"For ourselves, a sports equipment company to invest in the entire industry at once, in fact, the understanding of this industry is not in place at all, and the steps are too big. ”
Maybe it's because he's busy with accelerating diversification and doesn't have time to take care of the development of the footwear and apparel business, or it may be that Guirenniao itself doesn't pay enough attention to the design of footwear and apparel products.
"Too ugly" has become the general evaluation of consumers for Guiren Bird, and it has also become the most direct reason for being abandoned by consumers.
Source: Guiren Bird official website
"Although it's really cheap and would love to support, the shoes are a bit ugly to be honest. ”
"There's nothing to say about the quality of their shoes, but it's a bit unsightly, and if the design can be improved, maybe it can be reinvigorated. ”
Some people even directly @Guirenniao, hoping to improve the design level and make the shoes look better.
In recent years, the stalled noble bird has tried to "put out the fire" to save itself.
In 2021, Guirenniao bankruptcy and restructuring introduced Taifu Jingu as a shareholder, and its main business changed from sports shoes and clothing to grain trade.
It's a pity that maybe it was too late to wake up, or maybe it was in the wrong direction, and the noble bird couldn't "fly".
The honor update of the official website is also stuck in 2021
Consumers began to clearly perceive, "I don't know when it started, I can't see the store of Guirenniao on the street." ”
In the process of descending all the way, the noble bird had a chance.
In recent years, with the rise of a number of domestic brands, people have also shifted their attention from international brands to domestic brands, giving more attention to domestic products.
During this period, many sports brands took advantage of this to remove the labels of "LOW", "cottage" and "cheap", and achieved transformation and upgrading.
When other brands are born and die, the official website of Guiren Bird still exudes a breath of the early 21st century / Source: Guiren Bird official website
However, the noble bird, who wants to be "all-round", obviously misjudged his ability and opportunities, and failed to show his skills in the whole industry chain, and missed the domestic dividends because of ignoring the footwear and clothing track.
The most typical missed opportunity was in 2021.
In that year, Guirenniao received widespread attention from the society because of Henan's donations and materials, and ushered in the "splashing traffic".
At that time, some netizens found that Guirenniao's first quarter report in 2021 showed that "I was not rich in hand", and the monetary funds were only 22.68 million yuan.
As a result, many netizens said on social platforms: "Hanniao, they are all about to go out of business, and they still donate so much." ”
Source: People's Information
In order to support Guirenniao, a group of netizens shouted "to wild consumption" and rushed into Guirenniao's live broadcast room.
On the afternoon of July 25, 2021, the live broadcast of Guirenniao's official sports flagship store was watched by more than 500,000 people. Before that, the number of viewers of Guirenniao's live broadcast was only one or two thousand.
It's a pity that the "splashing wealth" noble bird failed to catch it, and one of the very important reasons was mentioned again and again:
"Solemnly declare: I have bought a suit in Guirenniao, and it will not look good when I wear it in the future, that is, I am ugly, and it has nothing to do with Guirenniao's products. ”
"Wild consumption" is temporary after all, and the final competition in the consumer market is still product and strength.
As netizens commented: "What happened to domestic goods? Under the market economy, it's not normal to be eliminated if you don't do well." ”
"If you can't keep up with the trend of the times, you will be eliminated, and it is not something that the sympathy card can pull up. ”
Source: Picture Worm Creative
In addition to their own "incompetence", the rapidly rising peers have made the noble bird powerless and completely lost the camp.
In 2023, Guirenniao is expected to lose 485 million yuan, compared with the net loss of 9.4137 million yuan in 2022, an increase of more than 50 times year-on-year.
Guirenniao gave the reason: the macroeconomic situation in 2023 will be more severe, the effective market demand will be insufficient, the market competition pressure in the food industry and sports shoes and clothing industry in which the company is located will be greater, and the operating performance will be greatly affected.
In fact, the "light of domestic products" of sports shoes and clothing has already quietly changed the baton.
According to statistics, in 2021, the top five market shares of China's sports shoes and apparel are Nike China, Anta, Adidas China, Li Ning and Skechers China, with shares of 25.2%, 16.2%, 14.8%, 8.2% and 6.6% respectively, accounting for more than 70% in total.
Source: iiMedia Data
According to the estimation of Guiren Bird, the market share of Guiren Bird in 2021 will be 0.28%-0.31%.
Xiaohongshu searched for Guiren Bird, Anta, and Li Ning, and the corresponding notes were 10,000+, 410,000+, and 490,000+ respectively, and some of the "Guiren Birds" were An Lingrong in "The Legend of Zhen Huan".
In the hearts of young people, the noble bird gradually lost its sense of existence.
Through the Baidu index, it can also be glimpsed that in the past ten years, the search index of "Guirenniao" has continued to lag behind Li Ning and Anta, and some nodes are even "far behind".
Source: Baidu Index
In addition to the "yaw" of Guirenniao, other brands are upgrading and transforming, seizing the dividends of the times wave after wave, and standing on one outlet after another.
When the noble bird came to his senses and found that "the step was too big", it was no longer able to catch up.
The noble bird once again confirmed that sentence: the times have abandoned you, and they will not even say goodbye to you.
On the contrary, it was the people who had consumed the shoes who suddenly heard the disturbing news of an old friend, and muttered to themselves: What is it?
From the peak to delisting, even if people who watch it along the way comfort that "delisting is not bankruptcy".
But it is undeniable that just like when I graduated and waved goodbye to my classmates and friends, "you also know that it will not be so easy to see each other again".
Some people miss the shoes that have been worn for a long time and still don't break, and some people sigh that they have done a good job, how can this be, "the noble bird really works hard in vain".
In the past, "big cities only look at Adinaike, and small cities only look at noble birds", but now even small cities are difficult to find noble birds.
"Who can stop you? Someone else, or yourself? If you know where you're going, the whole world will make way for you. ”
This is the advertising slogan of the noble bird, and some people say that it is full of wisdom and interprets the mystery of human life and failure.
But the slogan comes with the saying, "If you don't know where you're going, you usually won't be able to go." ”
Early advertisement for the noble bird
The 37-year shoe king came to an end, just like the song "Love Fights to Win", which has become a "nostalgic old song".
"Life is comparable to the waves of the sea, sometimes rising and sometimes ebbing. ”
Between the ebb and flow of the tide, what is left to the shore in the end may only be sighs.