Since the return of Hong Kong to the motherland, there have been a group of local established enterprises that have tried to transform but have not been fully recognized by the market, slowly moving down from the peak of glory, and even privatizing and delisting. This public account also plans the "Tragic Heroes" series of reports, taking stock of such a group of heroes with "tragic" colors, they once had great achievements, but the times have changed, the conquest of the mall seems to be inadequate, when it is really the times to create heroes, the creation of people ...
Speaking of The Hong Kong Tide Brand Collection, i.t Group (pre-delisting listing number: 999) is definitely on the list, which started from selling parallel goods and developed into a group that collects off-white, Balenciaga and other high-end luxury tide brands, comes from the protagonist of this issue, Shen Jiawei, and his more famous label is the husband of "sexy goddess" Qiu Shuzhen.
(Shen Jiawei and Qiu Shuzhen)
Shen Jiawei, born in Hong Kong in 1968, did not go to school after graduating from secondary school and began to work, in 1988 Shen Jiawei and his brother Shen Jianwei founded Green Peace in Causeway Bay, mainly selling overseas brand parallel goods, including the then popular British dr. Martens leather shoes and levi's 501 jeans earned their first pot of gold.
With the rise of fame, in 1996 green peace was sued by the environmental group Greenpeace (greenpeace) for infringement, the year after the settlement of the lawsuit, Shen Jiawei changed the company's name to "income team", a powerful "money-making team", referred to as i.t, because of the many world-renowned fashion brands, can be called the "originator of the fashion brand" in Hong Kong.
At its peak, i.t represented more than 300 fashion brands
(i.t brands)
In 2002, Shen Jiawei led i.t into the mainland market, relying on many fashion brand licensing and a number of private brands, i.t group expanded rapidly, and was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in March 2005, at its peak i.t represented more than 300 fashion brands, and has more than 20 own brands such as b+ab, izzue, 5cm, a bathing ape and so on. From 2010 to 2012, i.t Group's growth was in full swing, and in February 2012, the total number of i.t group stores in Hong Kong reached 266, all of which were self-operated stores. In the mainland, there were also 295 self-operated stores and licenses owned by i.t group, and the market value of i.t at that time was close to HK$10 billion (the same below).
(Interim report released in March this year, store coverage)
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, i.t's performance in Hong Kong began to decline, and nearly 70% of hong Kong's sales also came from mainland tourists, and then i.t group began to focus on the mainland market, in 2018, i.t group had a total of 492 physical stores in the mainland. A year later, the number doubled to 834. Despite this, i.t's performance was not ideal, and in fiscal 2018, i.t group revenue reached 8.832 billion yuan, but the net profit was only 440 million yuan, and the growth rate slowed down significantly. In the middle of fiscal 2019, there was a net loss of 71.2 million yuan for the first time, and the annual reporting loss was further extended to 745 million yuan.
In April this year, i.t finally privatized for 1.306 billion yuan, ending its listing status in just 16 years. Today, I.T is still operating, due to the introduction of foreign private equity fund CVC, shen Jiawei independently operates its own brand including chocoolate and some other business operations of i.t, and its shareholding ratio has also been reduced from 63% to 51%, in addition, CVC will jointly operate brand businesses such as a bathing ape and aape by a bathing ape with Shen Jiawei.
Qiu Shuzhen once pressed all her wealth to help i.t go public
Although i.t is delisted, but the good villain "saves his life", it can be said that Shen Jiawei is a veritable self-made starter, if this story is not eye-catching, then the marriage of the retail tycoon and the sexy goddess Qiu Shuzhen is enough to make him a household name.
(Qiu Shuzhen stills)
Qiu Shuzhen is known as "the desire of all Hong Kong men", Shen Jiawei can not only hold the beauty home, but also make the beauty shadow behind it to assist, which is really amazing. Since her marriage in 1999, Qiu Shuzhen not only serves as the image spokesperson of i.t, but also accompanies Shen Jiawei to Europe and Japan for many years to pick up goods, it is said that all the brands that she tried on and approved were sold as soon as they were introduced, becoming the group's purchase indicators, and also the group's proper cargo experts.
It is worth mentioning that Qiu Shuzhen even pressed all her savings in order to help i.t. According to the prospectus of i.t Group that year, "Ms. Qiu Shuzhen's bank deposit" was once one of the collaterals, which can be said to be all-out efforts to help her husband. Shen Jiawei gave her 25% of the company's shares at the beginning of the listing. At the peak of i.t Group's stock price in 2011, Qiu Shuzhen's net worth exceeded 2 billion yuan, far exceeding the net worth of many stars in the same period.
(Eldest daughter Shen Yue)
Qiu Shuzhen also carries her own goods from time to time, and because of her personal relationship with many local stars, she has also received the support of many popular stars, among which the movie star Maggie Cheung has also served as the image creation director of i.t, making i.t famous. In addition, her eldest daughter Shen Yue perfectly inherited her mother's beauty, known as the "most beautiful star second generation", and is now a model of i.t, and from time to time appears on the cover of some fashion magazines, which can be called the birth sign of i.t.
The unpaid leave for the guaranteed employment allowance was shelled
I.t to the end of the road, to give the most fatal blow is still the wave of epidemics sweeping the world, the retail industry is the hardest hit area, especially i.t rely on offline physical stores for a living. I.T closed 28 branches in Hong Kong and Macao last year and asked employees to take unpaid leave and take pay cuts, but at the same time, I.T just received a subsidy of 47.1 million yuan from the government's "employment protection plan" to subsidize 1809 employees, which was shelled by netizens.
To make matters worse, i.t was relegated to lease on a number of occasions last year, including 24 leases by Hang Lung Properties (101), including a number of shops at 51 and 53 Bai Tak New Street in Causeway Bay, a number of shops at Fashion Walk Shop at 2 Kingston Street, and 1st Floor, Hollywood Commercial Centre in Mong Kok. It has also been leased by Sun Hung Kai Properties (016), and the rent recovered per case involves 340,000 to 1.4 million yuan.
("Ape Man" brand)
It can be said that last year i.t was seriously injured, so there was no choice but privatization. Although it is not ruled out that the "Ape Man" brand under it may be spun off in the future, there is still a way to go, and why did i.t come to this step? In addition to the epidemic factor, fashion trends are always faster than the world, especially the rise of countless trendy brands, according to the big data report released by Nielsen, the growth rate of tide brand consumption in recent years has reached 62%, 3.7 times that of non-tide brands. Especially with the rise of the "Middle Ages" and the "National Tide", the market share of the mainland on which I.T depends for its survival has been squeezed a lot.
Secondly, buyer collection stores emerge in an endless stream, overseas purchasing is fast and affordable, and now all kinds of brands of all sizes around the world can be easily bought, and the collection advantage that i.t once maintained by relying too much on offline physical stores is naturally no longer obvious. In Hong Kong, i.t launched a concept store that integrates fashion, catering, beauty and lifestyle products, which is highly sought after by Hong Kong consumers, but it is difficult to implement in the mainland market.
Analysis: I.t may not be able to reach the top
After the delisting, Shen Jiawei has no new news, but his eldest daughter Shen Yue frequently appears in public, shooting covers, accepting magazine interviews, sharing life and makeup, etc., which once caused a topic and had a great succession posture.
(Shen Jiawei appeared at the privatization meeting in April)
What about Shen Jiawei? In fact, Shen Jiawei's form style has always been low-key, whether in the early days of his career or now, there are acting spokesmen around him, which may be related to his own personality, Qiu Shuzhen once said, "If you choose a rich person as a boyfriend, you can pick a stubborn one, but if you want to marry a rich person, you must choose a simple type." Maybe shen Jiawei was able to enter Qiu Shuzhen's eyes in this way.
The fall of i.t seems to be the epitome of the decline of a generation of trend empires, no way, it is far more difficult to dominate in the trend than other industries, some people are favored, some people have fallen, is the eternal law. Yang Yuchuan, chief macroeconomist of BGI Securities, said that I.T's lonely delisting, the social unrest in Hong Kong that began in mid-2019, and the epidemic that followed were the direct causes, which led to the continuous decline in I.T's performance. However, the epidemic has always lingered, customs clearance is far away, and the business prospects have no hope of improving in the short term, and the significance of barely insisting on it is limited. The indirect reason is that with the changes in the market environment, the multi-brand fashion clothing model that I.t relied on in the past has gradually encountered difficulties in competition. High-end brands are difficult to compete with luxury brands, low-end brands are difficult to compete with fast-selling brands, multi-brand is affected by e-commerce direct sales, and diversified product characteristics are not prominent enough, so that the company's operating performance continues to slow down. He believes that if i.t is delisted, it can improve the competition model of enterprises and make the characteristics of products more prominent, as long as they conform to the trend, continue to work hard, and rely on the foundation that the company has established, it may not be impossible to create a peak.
Wen Tianna, a senior financial and investment banker, said that I.t started by selling parallel goods, through the agency of foreign brands to develop themselves, from the perspective of competition, with the improvement of people's living standards, as well as the rise of various online purchasing platforms, the decline of i.t is similar to Li & Fung, that is, the role has been replaced. In addition, the development of I.T needs to rely on a strong flow of people, and it is predictable that the retail situation in various places will not be as good as before due to the impact of the epidemic. In addition, the current market atmosphere is that the more expensive luxury goods, the more people buy, and i.t belongs to the middle and upper level of fashion, which can be described as "high or low", and the core customer group at this level is not very competitive in the market.
(The third part of the "Tragic Heroes" series, series one, please poke this review: the ebb and flow of the centennial Lifeng tide!) Three generations of Feng Guojing had already foreseen the end... Series two please poke this review: play a good hand of business cards, how is the man behind Lin Qingxia "sad"? ）