Baleno Left The Mainstream Business Circle To Become A Street Store.

Baleno, a post-80 generation is no stranger.

20 years into the mainland.

However, the double-sided attack of e-commerce and international fast fashion brands is pushing the brand of casual clothes, such as Baleno, which has been highly sought after by the 80's, to the edge of the market.

Nowadays, it is hard to see Baleno stores in mainstream business circles.

Public information shows that Baleno controlled shareholder Hong Kong listed companies German wing Jia group recently announced that the price of 250 million yuan to sell its Shanghai Baleno Kingdom Limited.

De wing Jia said that the company is restructuring, the sale of Baleno can optimize resources, and the other side is Baleno's potential distributor - Shanghai Hui Ye Industrial Co., Ltd.

Later than Giordano entered the mainland but came back from behind.

There is a famous saying in the clothing industry: there is no weak market, only weak products.

Baleno, now forgotten by many consumers, was a young fan.

Baleno was founded in 1981. It was originally a Italy brand. Soon after its establishment, it started operating in Hongkong. It invited Zhou Runfa and Maggie Cheung to speak for others.

In 1996, Hongkong de Yongjia Group invested in acquiring Baleno and its trademark (54% of Baleno group), and entered the apparel retail distribution industry from the original textile industry.

The success of Baleno in the mainland is Mr. Chen Mian, director of retail business of the German wing wing group.

Chen Mian's other status is Guangzhou friendship (20.16, -0.53, -2.56%) Baleno Kingdom Limited chairman.

He graduated from computer science of Hong Kong Polytech University. He once took delivery in the US and became the highest paid Chinese employee in an American computer company.

His operation of Baleno was not smooth sailing. In the second years after the acquisition, he met the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and the cost increased. He lost 130 million yuan in the first 3 years, and was at the edge of death.

Finally, the success of positioning and channel advantages enabled Baleno to succeed.

Baleno targeted the target consumer group in the age of 18-40, the main line of the young line, male, female, neutral casual wear, at that time, the domestic brand competition is not enough, and the market is in short supply, Baleno occupies the opportunity, is pursued by the younger generation of consumers, almost into all the core business circle of the big city.

"We have mainly adopted two ways in the development of the mainland, one is to establish a joint venture with the local state owned commercial enterprises, and the two is to develop franchising chains by franchising."

Chen Mian said that Baleno's partners have friendship in Guangzhou, in Chongqing and Dasheng, in Beijing and Xingyu, and in Shanghai.

In these companies, Baleno is the controlling party, but generally only about half of the shares.

"This can reduce the cost of our expansion, and local companies are familiar with local policies and markets."

With this strategy, Baleno entered the mainland in 1996 and surpassed the brands such as Giordano and Pingguo which entered the mainland in the past few years. They also own S&K (living geometry), bambini (pure legend), I.P.Zone (Interactive Zone), Baleno dress BalenoAttitude, and Ebase.

By March 31, 2001, Baleno had 637 retail outlets in the mainland, while Giordano, known as "Asian retail one brother", had only more than 400 in the mainland.

In 2005, Chen Mian accepted "weekly magazine" interview, saying that Baleno's ideal was to spin off the market independently.

Beat

And beaten by UNIQLO.

However, in the past ten years, Baleno is no longer brilliant, and the core business circle of the first tier cities will not see its signs again.

In fact, not only Baleno, Giordano, but later Metersbonwe, Semir, YISHION and other 80 consumers have sought after the clothing brand, in recent years, no longer.

Compared with the decline of these leisure brands, UNIQLO, ZARA, H&M and so on are expanding and continuously carrying out the layout of the two or three tier cities.

With the continuous development of commercial real estate and the rise of new shopping centers, these fast fashion brands have become the standard of these shopping centers.

In fact, Fang Zhiyi, the foundry of UNIQLO, is de Yongjia.

According to German Yongjia's previous earnings report, due to the increase in orders from UNIQLO, Germany's management has confidence that the textile business's revenue contribution increased from 6%-7% in 2014 to 8% in 2015.

Unfortunately, even though UNIQLO and Baleno, which belong to two different camps, are intertwined with de Yongjia, it is obvious that de Yongjia did not learn anything useful for Baleno from its own UNIQLO foundry.

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In fact, UNIQLO entered China in the early 2002, because it was positioned as a popular leisure brand based on its successful experience in Japan. It was once beaten by Baleno and Giordano at that time. In 2005, it even suffered a continuous loss in Beijing market.

But after more than two years of adjustment, the consumer group repositioned the white collar UNIQLO and killed it again, and expanded in the Chinese market in 2008 and 2009.

Because of the fast fashion brand ZARA and H&M entering the Chinese market, UNIQLO finally got rid of the entanglement of low-end brands such as Baleno.

Exit from mainstream business circle and become Street store

Compared with the operation mode of fast fashion brands, Baleno is still in accordance with the traditional production process, a garment from design to production takes a few months to be listed on a quarterly basis, mass production, and UNIQLO and other international fast fashion brands, new products update speed up to one or two weeks, a small number of production, to cater to the needs of young consumers represented by 90.

This is a new contrast with the old clothes of Baleno and Giordano.

Baleno's "franchising" mode, joint design and collection store concept have gradually been submerged in the imitation of brands.

As early as 2006, Andy Lau, the boss behind the crazy stone, wanted to be a friendly person for his endorsement of Baleno. But the ad with the intention of inserting willows was ironic because of Huang Bo's ridicule of "brand, Baleno".

In fact, this reflects the weakness of Baleno's neglect of brand strategic planning and standardized management.

In addition, fast fashion brands are also actively exploring online business models, compared with Baleno's.

The road is slow and effective.

Yang Dayun, President of UTA Fashion Management Group in China, said that it is impossible to completely pform the operation and management concepts of garment brand enterprises that have always been on the basis of maintaining their original interests and scale. This seems to be an impossible task. "But without changing, these brands will disappear in the next 5-10 years, so that they will be replaced by more market segments, precision marketing, personalized needs, and more innovative business models."

The report shows that as of the end of March 2014, the number of outlets in the mainland market was as high as 388, accounting for 10% of the total number of stores.

Nowadays, there are only 43 stores in Hongkong where Baleno originated. There are 54 stores in Shanghai, 56 in Beijing, and relatively few in Guangzhou, but they are also extinct in the mainstream business circle, mostly in the form of small shops on the street side.

Falling into the third echelon, being dumped by the parent company.

However, Baleno's financial data is not bad enough.

According to its previously announced results for the first half of September 30, 2015, although the sub brand business of S&K, I.P.Zone and Ebase has shrunk, the growth of Baleno brand has led to an increase of 12.9% in sales.

But the influence of Baleno brand has long ceased to exist, which is quite clear.

Among its brands such as Baleno, life geometry and other retail brands, and the "chief" of the textile manufacturers of UNIQLO, the management of de Yongjia has been inclined to choose the latter in the process of bringing firm profits and rising share prices to the company.

Therefore, Hongkong German wing Jia group recently decided to sell Shanghai Baleno Kingdom Limited at 250 million yuan.

De wing Jia said that the company is restructuring, the sale of Baleno can optimize resources.

The news came as a result of many consumers' feelings.

According to Baleno's internal staff, the Shanghai Baleno, which is pferred by Germany, is just a sales company. Its stores in Shanghai are almost all rented. Besides the brand names, the real core assets include a retail property located on Nanjing East Road.

Therefore, there is an analysis of the industry that Baleno's current operating conditions, Shanghai Baleno 250 million yuan is not cheap.

According to the report, Baleno's potential distributor is Shanghai Hui Ye Industrial Co., Ltd.

According to public information, Shanghai Hui Ye industrial limited company's business scope includes investment management consulting, corporate image planning, computer software and hardware development, development, sales, daily necessities, chemical raw materials sales and many other aspects.

Some people in the industry believe that it is not easy for Shanghai Unicom to operate Baleno's "disadvantaged" brand. After all, it does not make clothes.

"Baleno in Shanghai is actually a sales company.

According to the current business situation, dozens of shops sell 2.5 billion, (De Yongjia) not only do not lose or sell expensive.

Min Guangya, a retail expert in fashion and fashion industry, believes that it will take a lot of effort for new owners to run such a "vulnerable" brand.

In his view, "today's Baleno has fallen to the third tier of domestic apparel brands."