Gold medal kitchen cabinet "makeover" to strengthen the strategic positioning of large home furnishings

Our reporters Yang Rangchen and Zhang Jiazhen report from Shanghai

(Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet Office Building.) Image source: company's official website)

Under the tide of industry transformation, the gold medal kitchen cabinet of custom home furnishing enterprises (603180. SH) chose to "change its name" in the middle of the trend.

On May 29, Gold Kitchen Cabinet announced that the company held the fifth meeting of the fifth board of directors on May 28, and deliberated and passed the "Proposal on Proposed Change of the Company's Securities Abbreviation", and agreed to change the company's securities abbreviation from "Gold Kitchen Cabinet" to "Gold Medal Home", and the company's securities code remained unchanged. The change of stock abbreviation is subject to the final approval of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

In fact, the replacement of the securities abbreviation and the strengthening of the strategic positioning of large home furnishings may be in the plan of gold medal kitchen cabinets. The reporter of "China Business Daily" noticed that the cover of the 2023 financial report of the gold medal kitchen cabinet has changed the previous style, and the main business words such as kitchen cabinets, wooden doors, and wardrobes that appear on the cover of the 2021 and 2022 financial reports have been replaced with "golden signboards customized by the whole family", and the only thing that remains unchanged on the cover is the more eye-catching word "gold medal".

For the reason for the change of the securities abbreviation, Gold Kitchen Cabinet explained that the name change to "Gold Medal Home" is to better reflect the company's large home strategy and main business, strengthen the company's "Gold Medal" brand image and value, and seize the minds of consumers.

Accelerate the de-labeling of kitchen cabinets

According to official information, Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet is a professional service provider of high-end overall kitchen cabinets and custom home furnishings in China, specializing in the research and development, design, production, sales, installation and after-sales services of integrated kitchen cabinets and custom home furnishings.

In 2023, Gold Kitchen Cabinet will be upgraded and unveiled to the market with the new positioning of "the whole customized golden signboard", conveying the company's brand status and value to users.

The reporter found that in the main business income of gold medal kitchen cabinets, the proportion of traditional kitchen cabinet business has begun to decline, and emerging tracks such as complete wardrobes and wooden doors are showing a growth trend.

According to the financial report data, in 2023, Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet will achieve a main business income of 3.546 billion yuan. Among them, the proportion of the overall kitchen cabinet business revenue, including kitchen appliances, balcony bathrooms and smart homes, in the main business was further reduced to 62.95%. In 2022, the revenue of the whole kitchen cabinet business of Gold Kitchen Cabinet will account for 66.5% of the main business.

While the proportion of revenue in the traditional overall kitchen cabinet business declined, the new business of gold medal kitchen cabinets began to grow. It is understood that in 2023, the operating income of the whole wardrobe business, including furniture and soft decoration, will be 1.044 billion yuan, accounting for 29.45% of the total revenue, a year-on-year increase of 8.65%; The operating income of the wooden door business is also increasing, reaching 246 million yuan, accounting for 6.93% of the total revenue, a year-on-year increase of 64.97%.

According to statistics, in 2023, the overall wardrobe and wooden door business revenue of Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet will account for 36.37% of the main business income. Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet said: "With the development of productivity and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the format of the home furnishing industry and consumer demand have undergone great changes, and the company's main business has extended from a single category to wardrobes, wooden doors, kitchen appliances, home furnishings, smart homes, large homes and the whole home." ”

Gold Kitchen Cabinet further said that based on this, in order to better reflect the company's strategic positioning and main business of large home furnishing, strengthen the company's "gold medal" brand image and value, and seize the minds of consumers, the company intends to change the securities abbreviation from "gold medal kitchen cabinet" to "gold medal home", and the company's securities code "603180" remains unchanged.

"Up to now, the company's brand has covered the core kitchen cabinets, wardrobes, wooden doors and other wood products whole-house customization, as well as kitchen appliances, household products, smart home and other products, and has formed a certain scale in each category, building the core barriers of the company's one-stop home life overall solution." Gold medal kitchen cabinet said.

The custom home furnishing industry has the characteristics of a service-intensive industry, and the development of the industry has gradually entered a deep water period. In order to better provide customers with one-stop service solutions, the company has increased its efforts to promote channel reform and sinking, accelerate the transformation of distribution terminals from sellers to service providers, and build a national service network of "dry warehouse assembly integration" to reduce the burden on retail dealers, hardcover agents and other partners, and further enhance the company's terminal competitiveness.

Deepen the layout of multi-category strategy

Custom home furnishing is highly related to real estate industry, in the past three years, with the adjustment of the real estate industry, the characteristics of the custom home furnishing industry has also undergone significant changes, the core performance of new housing demand compression, traffic cost increase, channel sinking and fragmentation, consumer demand for the whole family and other new characteristics.

"In this context, based on the in-depth understanding of the industry and the precipitation of capabilities, the company adopts a horizontal integration strategy, expands horizontally in the existing market, improves multi-category traffic collaboration, and provides customers with one-stop overall solutions for home life." Gold medal kitchen cabinet said.

Since the beginning of this year, the relaxation of real estate regulation and control policies in various places has been frequent, providing development opportunities for home furnishing enterprises.

According to the analysis of Dongxing Securities Research Report, since 2024, the sales of first-hand and second-hand houses have declined, and the completion data has also fallen, and the demand for home furnishings is still under pressure in the short term. "However, with the full cancellation of purchase restrictions in many cities including Hangzhou and Xi'an in May this year, as well as the central bank's reduction of personal housing down payments and loan interest rates, the real estate policy is expected to promote the expected rebound of the home furnishing industry."

The relevant research report of Guojin Securities also analyzes that the real estate demand-side policy is being exhausted, and at the same time, the home furnishing industry relies on the support of the natural renovation demand for second-hand housing, and the overall demand is resilient, and there is no need to be too pessimistic about the medium-term demand, and the current increase in the share of leading enterprises is expected to hedge the downward pressure on the industry relatively well.

Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet also said that under the trend of slowing growth in the new housing market, the custom home furnishing industry has gradually changed from incremental to stock market, industry competition has intensified, and stock housing and second-hand housing users have begun to become a strong growth point in the home furnishing market. At the same time, with the steady progress of urbanization, many old urban communities and buildings have a need for renovation, and the old reform, bureau reform market and "trade-in" are becoming a strong business sector to promote the progress of the industry.

In the new industry development environment, the big home strategy will become the main tone of the development of gold kitchen cabinets. At the performance briefing held a few days ago, Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet said that the company will firmly focus on the development strategy of large home furnishings, continue to strengthen the expansion of retail, home decoration, hardcover and overseas channels, enhance the company's differentiation and cost competitiveness, and promote the steady growth of the company's operating performance.

Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet has also increased investment in the layout of the home improvement business. "With the upgrading of consumption and the increase in demand for one-stop home furnishing solutions, the company's home improvement and decoration channel business will double in 2023, and the home improvement business has become a new growth point for omni-channel layout." Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet said that in the future, the company will continue to promote cooperation with leading home improvement companies, and at the same time rely on its own advantages in products, installation, logistics, etc., accelerate the integration of supply chain resources, match all categories of products for home improvement enterprises, provide multi-dimensional operational support and services, empower home improvement companies to better serve customers, and ensure the rapid growth of home improvement channel performance.

For the relevant development matters after the name change, the reporter called and sent a letter to the gold medal kitchen cabinet, but has not received a reply as of press time.

(Editor: Zhang Jiazhen Review: Tong Haihua Proofreader: Yan Yuxia)