Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Zhang Xuemei
In the first quarter of 2024, MINISO continued its high-quality development trend, and its overall revenue increased steadily.
On May 14, Beijing time, MINISO Group (NYSE: MNSO; HKEX: 9896) announced its Q1 2024 financial results, with revenue increasing 26% year-on-year to RMB3.72 billion, breaking through a new high in the first quarter, and a non-IFRS adjusted net profit margin of 16.6%. Adjusted net profit reached 620 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28%.
Thanks to the increase in the proportion of overseas revenue and the optimization of TOP TOY's gross profit margin, MINISO's gross profit margin in the quarter was 43.4%, an increase of 4.1 percentage points year-on-year, and the net increase in the number of new stores was 217, about three times the number of net new stores in the same period last year. As of March 31, 2024, MINISO has 6,630 stores worldwide, 4,030 domestic stores and 2,596 overseas stores.
During the reporting period, MINISO's gross profit margin, net new stores and other operating indicators reached a record high, and driven by super stores and super IP, its global brand strategy upgrade achieved remarkable results.
The momentum of globalization is strong, and super stores have become a powerful engine
Driven by the super store strategy, MINISO has achieved outstanding results in both domestic and overseas markets.
In the domestic market, MINISO achieved revenue of 2.5 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 16%. With its unique IP consumption scene experience, MINISO's "super store" has become an important engine for brand performance growth. On March 18, the newly opened flagship stores of MINISO Beijing Wukesong and Hopson Hui both covered an area of more than 400 square meters, continuing the innovative expression of "super IP" + "super store" in space design, further deepening the brand's positioning as a "global IP co-branded collection store" and bringing consumers an immersive shopping experience.
At the same time, MINISO has accelerated its global layout, and the market performance of overseas stores has also become the main driver of overseas revenue. In May 2023, MINISO opened its first global flagship store in Times Square, New York, USA, becoming the "first Chinese brand to enter Times Square, New York, USA", with sales exceeding 550,000 yuan on the first day of opening and setting a new high for monthly revenue of global stores with a monthly revenue of nearly 10 million yuan.
In less than a year, MINISO's New York Times Square pop-up store once again created a business sample to meet the super consumer demand of the American market with the ultimate cost-effective IP products. During the quarter, MINISO successively opened IP co-branded stores in Malaysia, Vietnam and other markets, and continued to intensively cultivate high-potential stores.
On May 9, the 2024 China Brand Global Communication Conference was held in Shanghai, and as the first Chinese brand to settle in Times Square in New York, MINISO was selected as an excellent case of "Global Communication Power of Chinese Brands".
The data shows that the competitiveness of MINISO in overseas markets has been significantly improved and continues to become an important growth point. In the first quarter, the single-quarter revenue of MINISO's overseas business exceeded 1.2 billion yuan, achieving a year-on-year growth rate of 53%. In particular, the revenue of the direct market increased by more than 92% year-on-year, and has achieved a year-on-year growth of more than 80% for four consecutive quarters, and the direct market accounted for 58% of the overseas revenue, with both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth.
In the first quarter, MINISO added 217 new stores, breaking the record for opening stores in the first quarter since history.
Co-branded 1+1>2, super IP detonated a consumption boom
As the first Chinese brand to cooperate with Chiikawa IP, MINISO co-branded "new top stream" Chiikawa is the first in China, covering hundreds of co-branded products such as plush dolls, daily necessities, and bags, triggering a phenomenal consumption boom.
It has successively launched Chiikawa x Miniso-themed pop-up stores in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and other cities, causing a check-in boom among young consumers. Ye Guofu, Chairman of the Board and CEO of MINISO (Group), summed up the collaboration with five "unprecedented", namely: unprecedented performance, unprecedented speed, unprecedented efficiency, unprecedented courage, and unprecedented enthusiasm of Chiikawa fans.
In addition, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of Barbie's IP, MINISO once again joined hands with "old friends" to create the first national float parade × Barbie's 65th anniversary, "Sister and Sister Fans in the Sky", which impressed consumers in visual aesthetics on the one hand, and aroused strong resonance among young users on the emotional level on the other hand.
IP co-branding is a booster for stimulating consumption, as well as a starting point for product innovation and content construction. Judging from the data performance, its IP product sales accounted for 26% in the first quarter. Among them, domestic IP products accounted for about a quarter, and the proportion of overseas IP increased significantly to more than 40% year-on-year, which also made MINISO one step closer to achieving the goal of 50% of IP sales in 2028.
MINISO is the world's first IP co-branded collection store, which opens the era of inclusive IP with high cost performance, breaks the barrier and inherent cognition of "IP equals expensive price", and turns IP consumption into mass consumption, which is a subversion and innovation at the commercial level, as well as the innovative development of Chinese brands.
Up to now, MINISO has reached in-depth cooperation with more than 100 world-renowned IPs such as Disney, Sanrio, Pokémon, Jurassic, Palace Museum Culture, Barbie, Loopy, etc., further strengthening the perception of "MINISO = co-branded boss".
TOP TOY occupies a high-potential business district, and its revenue has reached a record high
As another growth curve of MINISO, TOP TOY continued to make efforts in both product innovation and store upgrades, and achieved strong growth in performance. As of March 31, 2024, TOP TOY's revenue for the quarter reached 210 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55%, a record high; The total number of stores has reached 160, covering nearly 70 cities across the country.
In terms of product innovation and upgrading, TOP TOY has driven the improvement of the overall gross profit level through the growth of the gross profit margin and sales proportion of its own brand products such as exclusive blind boxes and building blocks. Among them, new products such as the Kuromi Witch's Grand Ceremony series figures, Disney's Stitch Funny Diary series figures, and the time-space Yuanlong creative assembly blocks have performed well in the market.
Nearly 60,000 Kulomi witch figures were sold in the first 10 days of listing, and the performance of May Day increased by 48% year-on-year; The performance of Stitch figure on the first 3 days was as high as 1.28 million, becoming the top seller list, with a total performance of nearly 5 million; The space-time dragon building block has also achieved good sales, with a total of 30,000 sales so far, becoming a landmark original product of China's building block trend.
At a time when consumers are paying more and more attention to experience, TOP TOY has entered the leading business districts such as Shanghai Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street, Shanghai Jing'an Joy City, and Zhejiang Ningbo Tianyi Square Store, continuing to create more diversified trendy toy experiences for consumers, and seizing users' minds through innovative user experience and word-of-mouth.
Ye Guofu said: "2024 is a new starting point for MINISO's five-year development plan. The trend of the times determines that China will give birth to a number of world-class consumer brands, and the goal of MINISO is to take advantage of the trend and become a super brand. ”
He emphasized that IP design and retail have a great future, and MINISO will continue to be committed to building "the world's first IP design retail group", focusing on IP strategy, adhering to cost-effectiveness, globalization, and product innovation, and constantly launching more good-looking, fun and easy-to-use products to expand the global market.