Several listed companies involved in clothing category have recently disclosed their 2022 performance reports. On the whole, the combination of multiple factors, such as weak market demand and increased operating costs, has had a considerable impact on the operation of physical stores, leading to a significant decline in the performance of many enterprises.
However, in the face of various pressures, clothing listed enterprises have tried to reverse the adverse effects by opening up market channels, increasing product technology research and development efforts, accelerating digital transformation and other measures. At the same time, with the accelerated implementation of a series of national measures such as "expanding domestic demand and stabilizing the economy", especially the "good start" of the 2023 Spring Festival consumption, the clothing consumption market has accelerated its recovery.
Drawing | Zhong Yanjing
Sports brands play relatively stably
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2022, the total retail sales of consumer goods in China will be 43973.3 billion yuan, down 0.2% year on year. Over the same period, China's retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats, needles and textiles totaled 1300.3 billion yuan, down 6.5% year on year. Despite all kinds of market pressures, the performance of Anta, Tebu and other sports shoes and clothing brands in 2022 showed relatively strong resilience, and they are still in the leading camp. Anta Sports predicts that the retail sales of Anta brand products in 2022 will increase slightly compared with 2021, the retail sales of its FILA brand products will decrease slightly year on year, and the retail sales of other brand products will increase by 20% - 25% year on year. Among them, in the fourth quarter of 2022, the retail sales of Anta brand products decreased by 7% - 8% year on year, the retail sales of Fiele brand products decreased by 10% - 20% year on year, and the retail sales of other brand products increased by 10% - 20% year on year. Anta said that in 2022, the growth momentum of the company's product sales will be dragged down by the significant decline in passenger flow and weakening consumer demand. Although the company's online sales offset the decline in the performance of some physical stores, and strictly controlled costs and cut operating expenses, it is still not enough to completely offset the impact and impact of market pressure. However, facing the challenging business environment, Anta's operating cash flow in 2022 will remain stable. It is expected that with the gradual implementation of the domestic demand expansion policy, Anta is expected to seize the growth opportunities after the market recovery and continue to maintain high-quality growth. Compared with Anta, Tebu's market performance is relatively optimistic, and its retail sales are expected to achieve a double-digit growth in 2022. Yang Lubin, chief financial officer of Tebu International, said that the sales of its brands will increase by more than 20% year on year, of which the sales of Tebu children will increase by 40% - 50% year on year. In addition, 361D's performance forecast also shows that, by the end of December 2022, the retail sales of 361D's main brand 361D's products in the fourth quarter were roughly the same as the same period last year, the retail sales of children's wear brands achieved a small increase year on year, and e-commerce sales increased by 25% year on year. In the opinion of Li Jie, a researcher of Soochow Securities, the degree of direct market impact on clothing enterprises and brands is mainly determined by their channel characteristics, such as the proportion of offline revenue, the number of stores, the distribution of stores, etc. The degree of indirect impact is mainly determined by their product categories and positioning. According to the performance of the past three years, the product category has the greatest significance for clothing brands to resist external shocks. From the degree of impact, the order from small to large is sports clothing, men's clothing, high-end women's clothing, and leisure clothing. Wang Feng, an analyst with Shanxi Securities, also said that the market share of relevant sportswear companies has been increasing continuously under the background that young consumers are more interested in domestic sports brands and domestic sports brands' own product research and development efforts are constantly increasing. Therefore, sportswear is still the best product for growth. From this point of view, it is no accident that the Movement Matrix can achieve relatively stable market performance.
The market is weak, and yesterday's glory is hard to be seen
Compared with the market performance of sports brands, 2022 will not be easy for some traditional clothing brands that once dominated the consumer market. Even the fast fashion brand Taipingniao, which has achieved "counter trend growth" in the past two years, will also experience weak growth in 2022. According to the performance forecast data, in 2022, Taipingbird is expected to achieve a net profit of about 195 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of about 71%; Its non net profit loss is about 14 million yuan, which is expected to decrease by about 103% year on year. This is the first loss of Taipingbird since it was listed six years ago. In 2020, the sales of Taipingbird will reach 9.39 billion yuan, up 18.4% year on year, and the net profit deducted will increase by 59.1%. In the first half of 2021, Taipingbird continued to maintain a high growth trend and delivered the enviable semi annual report. Its operating revenue reached 5.015 billion yuan, up 55.88% year on year; Net profit attributable to the parent company and net profit deducted from non net profit increased by 240.5% and 420%, showing an explosive trend. However, from the third quarter of 2021, Taipingbird began to show a downward trend, and its quarterly revenue grew only 3.92%. In 2021, Taipingbird will increase its income without increasing its profits, with a total revenue of 10.92 billion yuan, up 16.3% year on year, but the net profit attributable to the parent company and the net profit deducted from non net profit will fall by 5% and 7.3% respectively. As for the reason for the loss, Taipingbird said that the company's retail performance declined and the company's gross profit declined year on year due to various adverse factors in the past year. At the same time, the company's fixed expenses such as store rent and employee compensation are high, resulting in a loss of the company's non net profit deduction. "In 2022, some shoe and clothing enterprises will have a hard time, and the performance of online and offline channels will be difficult to make a big breakthrough." Cheng Weixiong, an independent analyst in the shoe and clothing industry, believes that the downturn in the consumer market has affected the annual performance of clothing enterprises to some extent. Coincidentally, the performance of Sima Clothing is also not optimistic. According to the performance forecast data, in 2022, Sima Clothing is expected to achieve a net profit of 600 million to 700 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 59.64% - 52.91%. In fact, in the first half of 2022, the performance of Taipingbird, Sima Garments and other companies has shown a downward trend, in which the net profit of Taipingbird fell by 67.57% and that of Sima Garments fell by 84.31%. Hao Shuai, an analyst with BOC Securities, said that 2022 would be a challenging year for garment enterprises, especially in the second and fourth quarters, when the terminal passenger flow declined significantly, the overall performance of the sector was under pressure. In addition, the discount intensity of some clothing brands will continue to increase in 2022, which will also lead to a significant decline in revenue and profits. This year, in the face of considerable market pressure, enterprises are also trying to find opportunities to "break the situation" through various ways. In 2022, the concept of "antibacterial fabric" became popular. By virtue of the concept of "antibacterial fabric", the stock prices of enterprises such as Annell have been rising and falling. Sima Garments also said on the investor interaction platform that antibacterial fabrics and other functional fabrics have been widely used in the products of Sima and Barabala brands. Meibang Clothing also disclosed on the investor interaction platform that some of the company's products currently on sale use antibacterial fabrics. Taipingbird also uses new antibacterial fabrics in some products. However, the concept of speculation is not a panacea to win the market after all. A few days ago, Annelle released its annual performance forecast for 2022. The data showed that although the sales of live broadcast e-commerce increased by 26.5% year on year, on the whole, the company's net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the reporting period still lost 230 million to 270 million yuan, and the net profit loss after deducting non recurring gains and losses was 245 million to 285 million yuan. It seems that the concept of "anti-bacterial", which is favored by capital, is still full of uncertainty to what extent it can solve the current difficulties faced by enterprises.
Core advantages to keep the market first
The year 2022 can be described as several joys and several sorrows for garment enterprises. While some enterprises are frowning because of the declining performance, others are relieved to try their best to stabilize the performance. Among them, Giordano, the veteran of the leisure industry who has been in constant popularity in the capital market for a long time, has to be mentioned. Continuing the trend of performance growth in 2021, Giordano's net profit in 2022 again achieved double-digit growth. Its performance forecast shows that, thanks to the growth of market sales in Southeast Asia and the Gulf Arab countries, as well as the company's streamlining of existing businesses and effective cost control, Giordano will achieve a net profit of HK $240 million to HK $270 million in 2022, an increase of 26% - 42% year on year. In fact, Giordano's performance has been poor since 2018. Its net profit declined by 4% in 2018; In 2019, the net profit decreased by 52.08%; Net profit in 2020 will turn from profit to loss; Although the performance in 2021 has increased, the revenue scale is still lower than that in 2019. In the face of market difficulties, Giordano has also tried to transform for many times, such as launching sub brands such as BSX, Giordano Youth and Giordano Women, in order to attract more young consumers, but they have achieved little and the market performance is flat. Since then, Giordano has focused on overseas markets. In 2021, Giordano opened new stores in Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius and Indonesia. The international market has become a remarkable new profit growth point in recent years. The most eye-catching performance in 2022 is Lutai. Due to the gradual recovery of global market demand driving the growth of product sales, Lutai's performance will increase significantly in 2022. Its performance forecast shows that in 2022, the company's net profit will reach 850 million yuan - 105 million yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 144.53% - 202.06%; Non net profit deducted reached 750 million yuan to 900 million yuan, an increase of 293.72% to 372.46% year on year. It is not easy to double the net profit in the current market situation. Lu Tai said that although the complex market environment has had a certain impact on the operation of the enterprise, and the consumer demand side has been restrained, its product positioning is medium and high-end consumer groups, and the product demand toughness is relatively good. In January 2023, the company's fabric capacity utilization rate will reach more than 70%, and the clothing capacity utilization rate will be close to 100%. In 2022, Nanshan Zhishang's revenue and net profit will also achieve double growth. Its performance forecast shows that in 2022, Nanshan Zhishang will use its technological advantages and R&D advantages to continue to develop high-value imported alternative fabrics and functional fabrics, promote the rapid growth of foreign trade orders, focus on textile and clothing business while laying out new material fields, create product diversification competitive advantages, and achieve performance growth. It is estimated that in 2022, the company's net profit will reach 155 million to 190 million yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 1.7% - 24.66%; Non net profit deducted was 142 million yuan - 177 million yuan, up 1.13% - 26.05% year on year. It is worth mentioning that the platform of "Yantai Key Laboratory of Functional Fibers and Textiles" jointly declared by Nanshan Zhishang, Shandong Nanshan University and Nanshan Institute of Science and Technology has recently been approved by Yantai Science and Technology Bureau and will be built into a regional key textile engineering laboratory. The two markets at home and abroad are working at the same time to accurately position consumer groups, focus on new technologies to create new advantages, and improve the added value of products and brands. This is a unique way for garment enterprises with promising performance to achieve breakthrough in the difficult situation. In this regard, Li Jie believes that in addition to actively responding to changes in the demand side, leading companies with strong risk resistance have advantages in supply chain, capital, technology, etc., which is conducive to maintaining market share in adverse environments and is expected to take the lead in the process of market recovery.
