The fluctuation of gold has actually touched the heartbeat of young people.
Gold prices have soared this year, and they haven't fallen for a few days before, and today gold prices have rebounded.
Source: Shanghai Gold Exchange
The purchasing power of the Chinese for gold is also in the world.
According to statistics from the World Gold Council, China's total jewellery demand reached 481t in the first three quarters of last year. In the first quarter of this year, the mainland bought more than 183 tons of gold jewelry.
Even in small counties, Chow Tai Fook, Lao Fengxiang, Zhou Dasheng, Jin Mengyuan... The competition in gold shops is fiercer than that of bubble tea shops.
But among the many competitors, there is an "inconspicuous" small gold store that is quietly making a lot of money.
In terms of the number of stores, there are nearly 5,000 in Chow Tai Sheng, more than 4,000 in Liuliufu, and more than 3,000 in Mengjinyuan, and only 29 of these small gold stores have been opened.
But as soon as the accounts were settled, everyone was dumbfounded.
From 2019 to the present, the gross profit margin of Laopu Gold is as high as 40%, not only surpassing but directly crushing all competitors.
In 2022 and 2023, among all gold jewelry brands in China, Laopu Gold ranked first in terms of revenue per store.
In high-end shopping malls, the queue at the golden entrance of the long-established shop makes GUCCI behind him inferior by three parts.
With less than 30 stores, why has it become AKA's money-making engine?
An unknown junior,
actually beat up a lot of bigwigs
Maybe you've never heard of old-fashioned gold, but that doesn't stop it from being the gold Hermès.
No matter how much psychological construction you do before walking into the gold store, the old gold will still punish everyone with a hard mouth.
With the recent rise in gold prices, Chow Tai Fook gold prices have exceeded 718 yuan/gram, while the average gram price of long-established gold in the first half of 2023 has reached 702 yuan.
Expensive, is the most obvious label of old-fashioned gold.
An ancient gold gourd pendant, priced at 29,380, about 818 yuan per gram;
A 47-gram eight-treasure pendant costs 43,000, which is equivalent to more than 900 yuan a gram of gold.
There are also 110,000 golden dragon sachet pendants, 200,000 golden mandarin ducks, and 400,000 rose window necklaces......
If it is a diamond-set style, it is more expensive. According to the old gold data, in the first half of 2023, the unit price of its pure gold inlaid products will reach 995 yuan.
Not only are the products expensive, but these 29 stores also reveal an aristocratic temperament.
Nowadays, the trend is that the opening of gold stores is almost sinking more and more, and at the most exaggerated time in the county, you can see 15 gold stores within 200 meters. In Binzhou, Shandong, Lao Fengxiang and Zhou Dasheng had to fight directly with each other in the most simple way in order to grab business.
However, the old gold does not engage in joining, nor does it sink, and it specifically picks expensive places in first-tier and new first-tier cities.
All of the stores are self-operated, including SKP in Beijing, WF Central in Beijing, Yu Garden in Shanghai, Taikoo Hui in Guangzhou, and The Venetian Macao......
You might say it's a gold store, but it prefers to be a neighbor of high-end luxury goods.
As of October 2023, among the top 10 high-end department stores in the country, 8 of them are covered by Laopu Gold.
In order to achieve the ultimate in "expensive", the old gold is even more "bloody".
Not only are there products with a sense of dynasty such as the golden dragon and golden phoenix, Wannian Ruyi and wheat ears Pixiu on display, but even a large piece of space is set aside as a "study" in Beijing SKP, which has a rent ceiling.
Since everyone thinks of gold is soil, it is simply decorated into a Chinese-style study, which is vulgar and elegant.
Also known as the "Little Black House", the old gold tea room displays a large number of "rare" gold artworks.
50,000 bamboo gold pens, pure gold brushes, hair is wolf's hair;
120,000 sachets are hung on Chinese-style shelves, which can be lit with aromatherapy or decorative lights;
The girl fantasizes about when she will be able to have a 350,000 gold jewelry box; The boy couldn't put down the 680,000 yuan Yue Wang Sword.
In Beijing SKP, where luxury goods are gathered, Laopu Gold not only sold 250,000 golden walnuts, but also made neighbors blush in terms of earning power:
In the first half of last year, with only two SKP stores, Laopu Gold earned 154 million yuan, with an average monthly ping efficiency of 427,000 yuan, which is 26.7 times the average monthly ping efficiency of SKP.
Civil servants went to sea and sold gold for high fashion
The old gold trench is like this, and it is inevitable that there are "masters" behind it.
But in fact, Xu Gaoming, the behind-the-scenes trader of the old gold, is a brand founded by a clerk who resigned to start a business.
In 1992, there was a wave of "going to the sea to do business" in society, and many public officials left the system one after another to show their strength in the business world.
That year, Xu Gaoming had just taken office as the general manager of the Aquatic Products Building of the Yueyang Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Bureau.
Three years later, Xu Gaoming also resigned to start a business, but instead of doing a gold business, he opened a tourism company in Yueyang with his nephew.
In 2004, Xu Gaoming established Golden Treasure. It operates two brands, one is "Golden Treasure", which mainly sells tourism and cultural creativity in major scenic spots, shopping malls and temples; The other is "old gold", which is mainly to sell gold.
At that time, the old shop gold, the future was uncertain, and the money was unknown.
It wasn't until seven years later that Laopu Gold was officially incorporated and operated independently - I didn't expect that in the years after independence, it would make more and more money by selling it.
From 2020 to 2022, the revenue of Laopu Gold rose from 896 million to 1.294 billion. Although there are only 29 stores, the average store revenue in 2023 will reach 93.9 million.
The key node for the old gold to make money is to find a track: ancient gold.
In the past, when it came to gold, everyone thought of 18K gold and 24K gold, but now there are many unfamiliar words in the gold industry: 5G gold, 3D hard gold, ancient gold, enamel gold......
In the simplest terms, they represent a new process for gold.
For example, 3D hard gold is a process that uses "electroforming" to harden the otherwise soft pure gold, and the weight of 3D hard gold is only 30% of that of ordinary gold, and the volume is also lighter, but the hardness is four times that of it.
Source: Little Red Book
But the most expensive category is not the dazzling product, but the rather plain-looking ancient gold.
The ancient method of gold is the use of intangible cultural heritage methods such as waxing, tire, hammering, filigree, engraving, inlay, and gold repair, so that the gold presents a matte texture.
In the past, the gold flashed a lot, and now the ancient method is so terrifying.
Among the wide range of gold jewellery products, gold jewellery made using ancient gold techniques has become the fastest growing category in the market.
Wang Lixin, chief executive of the World Gold Council China, said in an interview that in 2021, ancient gold accounted for the third largest proportion of the overall gold jewellery market, with the top two being pure gold and hard gold jewellery. And by 2022, the proportion of ancient gold jewelry should have risen to second place.
The old shop gold grabbed this category and fought its way out of the encirclement.
To get rid of young people, give up the "nouveau riche" character first
Finally, back to the soul torture:
There are so many ancient gold sellers on the market, why do old shops make a lot of money?
Before answering this question, it is necessary to correct a misconception that many people have: on the surface, selling gold seems to be a safe profit, but in reality the gold business is too difficult to do.
In most cases, there is a "pro-cyclical" relationship between gold jewellery sales and the price of gold. When the price of gold rises, the higher the investment savings value of gold, and the more people buy gold jewelry.
At this time, Chow Tai Fooks usually reserves gold in advance. During a period when the gold price is rising, the larger the difference between inventory and sales, the higher the gross profit. Conversely, during the downward period of gold prices, the lower the gross profit of gold stores.
In 2013, when the "gold rush", Chow Tai Fook made a net profit of 5.908 billion, a figure that has not been broken to this day.
Since then, it has become more and more difficult for directly operated stores, and many gold stores have to start to join the sinking market to grab money.
Therefore, the money-making model of many gold stores not only benefits from gold, but also suffers from gold.
The cracking strategy of the old gold is to sell the gold in the same way as a luxury product.
Unlike other stores that sell by the gram, the products of the old gold are all at a fixed price.
The gold-making technique originated from the old goldsmith of Beijing Gongmei Filigree Factory, and was inherited from the goldsmith of the original Qing court office. To put it bluntly, just like luxury, master craftsmanship is not sold for gold, but for craftsmanship and fame.
In the interview, industry insiders also told Brother Dao, "The explosion of ancient gold is also related to the aesthetic fatigue of young people. ”
With the dual blessing of "Chinese culture and Chinese characteristics" and the temperament of handmade craftsmen, fashionistas seem to have found a reason to convince themselves.
Young people complained that the ancient gold was "beautiful but not durable", "the surface treatment is easy to wear", and "the process cost is too high", while praising "it meets my aesthetic standards" and "it is really beautiful".
And if you look closely, you will find that the packaging color of the old-fashioned gold is also quite "Hermes".
Peers are selling products, and the old gold is selling people.
In the first half of this year, Laopu Gold's revenue increased by 116.1% year-on-year to 1.418 billion yuan. Although the revenue scale of more than one billion yuan is less than a fraction of Chow Tai Fook's revenue of more than 80 billion yuan, the company's gross profit margin level can be called the industry leader.
Therefore, when Chow Tai Fook's gross profit margin remained at about 20%, the gross profit margin of Laopu Gold has exceeded 40%.
This is the secret of the "king of gross margins" of long-established gold - no one sees that this is a gold store that has only been established for less than 15 years, but creates luxury goods and specializes in high-end.
Of course, in recent years, almost all the leading gold jewelry brands have launched ancient gold products.
Gold jewelry brands such as Lao Miao, Zhou Dasheng and Lao Fengxiang have also begun to try to integrate some ancient gold craft products into gold products. Because these gold shops clearly know:
If you want to make money, you have to rely on young people to get on the top.
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