Vantage has carried out changes through strategy, products, channels and other aspects, ushered in a new growth, and demonstrated to us the strong strength of the industry's leading brands.
On April 26, Vantage released its 2023 annual report and the first quarter report of 2024, which showed that in 2023, Vantage's revenue will be 6.233 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.12%, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be 447 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 212.50%, the revenue in the first quarter of 2024 will be about 1.381 billion yuan, an increase of 15.6% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be about 124 million yuan, an increase of 34.61% year-on-year. Vantage's performance has grown steadily and its profitability has increased significantly, which is a very perfect answer.
Return to productism and innovate to solve consumer pain points
In the past year, the kitchen appliance industry has ushered in a new round of development cycle. AVC data from Aowei Cloud Network shows that the retail sales of the domestic kitchen appliance market will reach 167 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 5.3%. This is an opportunity, but also a challenge, how to continue to innovate on the basis of the existing product architecture, is a topic that every brand must face. Vantage has ushered in new growth through changes in strategy, products, channels and other aspects, showing us the strong strength of the industry's leading brands.
Vantage said in the announcement that the company adheres to the brand drive, implements the technology brand strategy, continues to improve the user experience, enhances retail, and drives the steady growth of the company's operating performance. Dismantling Vantage's 2023 annual report found that the gross profit margin on sales was 42.3% and the net profit margin on sales was 7.2%, both of which were the highest levels in the past three years. While the profit increased, the proportion of receivables decreased instead of rising, and the cash flow increased significantly and hit a record high. This means that Vantage's profit growth is the quality growth of real materials, and it is the result of relying on high-quality product power.
In 2022, Vantage put forward the concept of "easy to use, good looking, good clean" and "three good" kitchen appliances for the first time. In 2023, Vantage will continue to focus on the implementation of the concept of "three good" kitchen appliances, and at the same time, relying on the concept of "white technology", focusing on the "good clean" strategy, the first "clean kitchen system", and releasing the new "clean white series" new products, opening a new paradigm of healthy kitchen with "clean kitchen", bringing new ideas for the ideal lifestyle to the industry. The integrated kitchen appliance business is a new growth point for Vantage's performance in 2023. During the reporting period, the operating income of the integrated cooker increased by 23.31% year-on-year, outperforming the industry, and the operating income of the integrated cooking center was 36 million yuan, creating a new growth momentum.
By the end of 2023, Vantage has a total of 4,862 valid patents, and 846 new patented technologies will be added in 2023, including 126 invention patents. Not only that, Vantage also officially announced the popular star Bai Jingting as the brand spokesperson, continuing to write a new brand story, accurately positioning target users, and playing with young people. Vantage makes full use of emerging marketing channels such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, etc. to promote and accurately anchor the brand's target customers, which is perfectly in line with Vantage's strategy of building a "fashionable and scientific kitchen appliance brand".
With the support of multiple sales channels, it opens up a new growth point
Not only has it achieved outstanding results in product innovation, but at the channel level, Vantage has also carried out a diversified layout and created new growth points, which is clearly reflected in the report. The Company's online channels achieved operating income of 2.189 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.44%, offline channels achieved operating income of 2.834 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.94%, and sinking channels achieved operating income of 965 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 58.6%. Jiang Lingwei, vice president of Vantage, said in an interview earlier that the company has implemented a flat channel reform, and the channel no longer has online and offline barriers, but a game of online and offline chess. This omni-channel integrated development method has effectively improved the company's internal operating efficiency. The company's internal vertical and horizontal connection, real-time triggering, around the user to form a closed loop.
On the one hand, Vantage maintains stable cooperation with e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Tmall, Suning, Pinduoduo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu to accurately anchor brand target customers, improve traffic conversion rate, and expand sales growth space. On the one hand, it actively embraces new retail models, emerging channels and overseas channels to maintain long-term growth trends. In terms of the sinking market, Vantage's brand "Black & Decker" is mainly deployed in third- and fourth-tier cities in China, and currently has more than 300 dealers, more than 3,000 franchised stores, and more than 6,000 sales outlets. At the same time, the company focused on promoting the implementation of key operation projects, accelerating the construction process of national benchmark stores, introducing a digital operation model, formulating a sales policy, planning a number of marketing activities to attract traffic to stores, continuously promoting product updates and iterations, and constantly exploring new models of channel cooperation.
Not only does it continue to innovate its business model at the sales end, Vantage also attaches great importance to digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading, and promotes the comprehensive upgrading and transformation of manufacturing through the application of automation and digital upgrading on the basis of leanness. The goal is to reduce the production expense rate, increase production capacity and production efficiency, and improve the stability of product quality.
Pan Yejiang, chairman of Vantage, once put forward two dilemmas in industrial development. First, it is blindly "doing addition": the continuous superposition of functions and scenarios makes enterprises easily involved in the "arms race" of parameters. The second is the neglect of "productism". And his "third thinking" is to respond to the real needs of consumers, solve the real pain points of consumers, and provide consumers with real and effective value. He believes that Vantage's understanding of "productism" is from "selling products" to "serving people".
It is this cherishing of consumer needs that allows Vantage to continue to bring innovative ideas and innovative products, which undoubtedly allows Vantage to continue to explore growth potential and achieve high-quality profits. Behind the dazzling achievements must be hard work, looking forward to Vantage shares continue to lead the high-end transformation and upgrading of China's kitchen appliances and bring more good news to the market.