In February 2023, Qiu Guanghe, the founder and chairman of Semir Clothing (002563.sz), a long-established casual clothing company in Zhejiang, resigned, and his son Qiu Jianqiang took over as the legal representative, chairman and other positions.
In April this year, Semir Apparel handed over a double-increased financial report, with total operating income of 13.661 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.47%; net profit of 1.122 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 76.06%. This is also the first report card handed over by Qiu Jianqiang after taking office.
Looking back on the past few years, Semir’s highlight was still in 2019. That year, the company's revenue surged by 20%, reaching 19.337 billion yuan, almost "touching" the 20 billion yuan threshold. But the good times did not last long. From 2020 to 2022, Semir's apparel operating income was 15.205 billion yuan, 15.420 billion yuan and 13.331 billion yuan respectively. Objectively speaking, in those three years, the results of Semir's apparel counterparts were not satisfactory.
Compared with Meibang Apparel, which has a higher national reputation and is now losing money and selling off assets year after year, Senma Shang maintains a scale of more than 10 billion and a certain level of profitability. But there is also awareness within the company that changes are needed.
Qiu Guanghe was 72 years old when he retired last year. In his early years, he worked as an agent for Metersbonwe for two years. After that, he decided to join the clothing industry and founded Semir in 1996. The successor, Qiu Jianqiang, was born in 1974. Before taking over Semir from his father, he served as executive chairman of Semir Apparel, general manager of Shanghai Semir Investment Co., Ltd., and director of Semir Group Co., Ltd.
Qiu Jianqiang once publicly stated that he would build Semir into the "Chinese version of Zara". Time has passed and now he has changed his mind.
In 2023, Semir re-adjusted its positioning and began to provide adult clothing, children's clothing and home products for family scenarios, and changed its target customer group from the previous "post-95s young people" to "Chinese mass families".
"It sounds more like Uniqlo's positioning - this is what Semir wants to learn from." Cheng Weixiong, founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., said that the Chinese mass market always has a demand for products with both quality and cost-effectiveness. As a brand with a huge channel and supply chain base, it is understandable that Semir chooses to transform into a wider mass market. Satisfying family shopping was also the positioning of Gap back then, but Gap did not go very far in China. The transformation of
has been implemented into new offline stores. Recently, Semir opened its first flagship store after transformation in Hangzhou. The new store is built as a "one-stop shopping full-category retail space" covering adult clothing and children's clothing, compatible with the needs of people of different age groups. According to Semir's estimates, the brand will open more than 500 new stores in 2024, strengthen cooperation with shopping mall chains in key cities, and continue to expand brand influence and market share.
According to some fashion bloggers and industry insiders who have visited the new store, like many large clothing brand stores, the products in Semir’s new store cover multiple categories such as light outdoor, sun protection, children’s clothing, and leisure. When you walk in, it seems like everything popular on the market is on sale, but if the logo is covered, people often can't tell the difference.
"The consumer experience in the Chinese market has changed, from being dominated by offline to online and offline interconnection. In the field of casual clothing that focuses on fashion, online brands with small size and high flexibility often have the characteristics of Bissonnma." This kind of large-scale brand has a faster pace of launching new products and has advantages in terms of price,” Cheng Weixiong pointed out.
However, in any case, from the perspective of performance, Semir’s performance is gradually recovering after the second generation took over. The first quarter report of 2024 shows that the company's main operating income is 3.139 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.58%; the net profit attributable to the parent company is 346 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.4%; non-net profit after deducting is 338 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.55%. After
’s domestic transformation, the company is also exploring overseas business. Since last year, Semir Apparel has invested part of its energy in exploring the sources of business growth, increasing its efforts to deepen the Asian market, and exploring the African market. In April 2023, Semir Apparel established an overseas business department to build an organization and team to conduct online and offline full-scale operations in overseas markets. As of December 31, 2023, the company has opened 70 stores overseas and in Hong Kong, China.
(This article comes from China Business News)
