Suddenly! Meibang Closes The First Flagship Store In Founder'S Hometown

Recently, according to netizens' news, the flagship store of MetS Bonwe (hereinafter referred to as "Meibang") located in the new street of Qingtian County in Lishui suddenly closed down. From the photos sent back by netizens, it can be seen that the store is in the process of removing the cabinet. According to the staff at the scene, it is the company's decision to close the store, and it is not convenient to disclose the rest. At present, the building where the store is located has been hung with banners for rent.

The first stores of TSB have been opened in Qingtian County for five years in 2017. Interestingly, Qingtian is the hometown of Zhou Chengjian, the founder of Meibang, and one of the representative cities in the sinking market layout of Meibang brand. The closure of the flagship store of the brand in this region has an unusual meaning for both the brand and Zhou Chengjian.

As a leading brand of Chinese leisure clothing, MetS Bonwe was founded in 1995. It has been popular all over the country with the slogan "don't go the ordinary way. It carries the youth memory of the post-80s generation. It was once the synonym of local fashion.

In 2011, the sales of MetS Bonwe exceeded 10 billion, with 4164 stores. Almost at the same time, JeansWest and Barney Road, the Hong Kong funded clothing brands entering the mainland market of China, were also hard to compete with the power of Meibang. In 2012, the number of stores of Meibang reached 5220.

However, in recent years, with the changes in the retail environment, the arrival of the tide of consumption upgrading and the Red Sea competition in the clothing industry, as well as the aging of the brands themselves, a number of leisure clothing brands, represented by MetS Bonwe, have encountered a "middle-aged crisis", accelerated the decline, the market share fell sharply, and the revenue declined. The former grand occasion is gone forever.

In 2012, Meibang began to retire year by year. In 2013, the revenue of Meibang reached 7.89 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17%; in 2014, the revenue of Meibang reached 6.621 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.08%.

In 2019, the revenue of Meibang reached 5.482 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 28.59%, still at a double-digit rate. Meanwhile, since 2016, the asset liability ratio of Meibang has increased from 49.22% at the end of 2016 to 62.72% in the third quarter of 2019.

Compared with the same period of last year, Meibang's net profit decreased by RMB 21.82 billion and RMB 15.215 billion respectively. The first quarter of 2020 is also expected to be in a deficit state, with an estimated loss of 150-250 million yuan.

In the past, the clothing giant, which created 10 billion revenue in the past, is falling into a huge loss. Aware of the crisis encountered by the brand and the bottleneck that must be broken, Metersbonwe began to rescue itself again and again.

It includes a series of transformation measures, such as brand upgrading, online and offline reform. However, on the road of rectification, these big fists seem to fall on cotton, with little effect, and have not completely reversed the situation of low net profit and high inventory pressure of Meibang.

Since the beginning of this year, the retail industry is facing severe impact due to the severe situation of the retail industry. MUJI U.S. branch filed for bankruptcy, UNIQLO's revenue and profit in the first three quarters fell rarely... The clothing industry is experiencing unprecedented pain and great changes.

Some people in the industry believe that in the rapidly changing retail environment, brand rejuvenation is the foundation and the way out in the future. In addition, we must pay attention to the brand and the ability of brand building.