The Sporting Goods Industry Is No Longer &Nbsp; The Merger And Acquisition Of The Leftover Is King

With the 2008 Olympic Games for local sporting goods brand With the gradual decline of the stimulus, the local sporting goods company, who has been singing for three years, has to cross the rails on the way ahead. Layoffs , inventory backlog, single store profit... It's really a problem for domestic sports brands.

Great leap forward growth in recent years

Tracing to the source, the reason why the sporting goods industry has such a situation is not related to the development trend of the "great leap forward" style. Behind some data can reflect the development trajectory of the industry to a certain extent.

Textile products, including sporting goods, provided by the Qing research center. Garment industry Investment and financing data show that in 2007, the sports brand ushered in the peak of investment and financing. In the previous 2005 and 2006, textile and garment enterprises including Hongxing Erke and China trend got 12 investments, but in 2007, this amount increased to 20. With the successful holding of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the enthusiasm for investment and financing of sporting goods is soaring. During the year, there were 21 investment and financing cases in textile and clothing enterprises. In 2009, although the figure was slightly callback, it was only 17. market Since the high tide since 2007, the investment enthusiasm of VC/PE in this field has reached its peak in 2010 and 2011, under the seduction of expedited exit channels, 42 and 52 respectively.

Meanwhile, according to incomplete statistics, a total of 13 sporting goods companies have been listed on the mainland and abroad since 2007. Before that, there were only about 5 sporting goods listed companies. In fact, the pace of listing is still proceeding in an orderly way. At the end of 2011, Jordan sports will be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange smoothly, and behind it, in the period of guidance, the birds and del Hui enterprises are also eager for the capital market.

In fact, while companies are trying to capitalily fulfill their business ideals in the capital market, the market has changed quietly. Xiong Xiaokun, a light industry researcher at CIC, said that the size of the sports market has been growing at a high speed of two digits every year since 2000. By 2004, the scale of the whole market has reached 4 billion 200 million dollars. By 2008, the scale of China's sporting goods market has reached 6 billion 200 million US dollars. But in the following years, the consumption boom of sporting goods has gradually weakened with the end of the Olympic Games.

However, during the period of market ceiling, the expansion speed of enterprises during this period is not slowing down.

Public information shows that in 2007 -2009, the number of domestic sports enterprises listed on the list increased by nearly two, while the number of terminals increased by nearly two times at the end of 2009 compared with the end of 2006. In fact, "in the early stage of the expansion of sports goods channel, it has indeed ushered in a profit growth for some time, but with the continuous expansion of its speed, the retailer overstock a large number of stocks. In order to keep the channel sales patency, the major enterprises had to buy back inventory from retailers, which to a certain extent affected the development of enterprises in the later stage". CIC consultant light industry researcher Xiong Xiaokun introduced.

Serious homogenization of products

At the same time, the sporting goods industry exposes another fatal short board: the homogenization of products is serious.

Due to the ambiguity of positioning and the unclear planning of market refinement, the fierce competition brought about by the homogenization of products has made the profits of the company and the company continuously thin. Xiong Xiaokun believes that the current sporting goods brand is still dominated by Adidas and Nike, which mainly focus on high-end consumer market. Its dominant position is difficult to shake in the short term. The two or three line brand is mainly targeted at the low-end consumer market, and domestic brands mainly include XTEP, Anta and Jordan.

Sporting goods marketing observer Ma Gang said in an interview with reporters, from the current situation, the sporting goods industry is experiencing the most painful period, from the high income and high growth drop, the industry market competition pattern will intensify, in this process, there will be the competition of products by the impact of competition, slowly falling behind. And the industry will change from multiple brands to the national market to a few brands to coexist with the national market. Some brands will become regional brands or subdivision brands, and the comprehensive national sporting goods enterprises will be reduced to 2~3.

Before that, however, it is urgent for enterprises to redefine their brand positioning and market segmentation.

In an interview with reporters, Xiong Xiaokun analyzed the dual competitive pressures of domestic and foreign brands. "Sports" and "leisure" have always been the dominant orientation of domestic brands. However, due to the inadequate degree of subdivision of domestic brands, many domestic brands are not clear enough, leading to serious homogenization of sports goods market, coupled with worsening external economic environment and insufficient demand market power, resulting in declining competitiveness of sporting goods, poor performance and spanformation. It is necessary to intensify the intension of sports products and gradually turn to the direction of specialized sporting goods.

For enterprises, there is no way out except to clarify the positioning and spanformation. {page_break}

Elimination and merger soon

However, the landmark event of putting the industry spanformation problem under the spotlight is the news of Lining's announcement of layoffs in early 2012. Although the details about the size of the layoffs and the departments of the employees have not been revealed, Lenovo has previously questioned the failure of Gome sports in the construction of retail outlets, and lowered the performance expectations of many sporting goods companies. All of them have questioned the outside world in the minds of sporting goods industry, both in production and in the retail sector.

The problem that can not be ignored is that behind the crazy expansion, the problems of single store profits decline and inventory remain high. Under the influence of these comprehensive factors, a number of sports listed companies have lowered their performance expectations and spent huge sums of money on solving inventory problems. In August 2011, Lining and China announced that they had spent 300 million yuan and 200 million yuan on stock repurchase respectively.

For enterprises to buy back inventory behavior, Ma Gang believes that "in order to solve the problem of turnover of goods, so that the updated products on time to the terminal, if there is no problem with terminal commodity turnover, the problem of repurchase does not exist naturally. At present, the scale of sports goods industry is almost saturated, and the key to terminal operation in 2012 is to digest the inventory vigorously, ensure channel health and enhance single store profits.

There are signs that 2012 is clearly a turning point in the sporting goods industry. With the integration of the industry, inevitable mergers and elimination will be staged. "Lining, Anta, BELLE, Baosheng have merger cases. There should be a certain scale merger case in the future." Ma Gang said.

With the adjustment of the company's operation strategy, many enterprises have exposed the information of management changes. Xiong Xiaokun believes that the possibility of personnel changes in the future industry spanformation is greater because of the direct impact of spanformation on the organizational structure and strategic direction of enterprises.

Differentiated competition is a trend

In fact, in the process of spanformation, there have been many attempts at terminal channel construction, such as Gome sports strategy, but in the end it failed. In January 18, 2011, Gome sports held a press conference in Beijing to announce the launch of the Gome sports store program. It said that it would open 27 new stores in Beijing in 2011, and the national sales target was 1 billion yuan. In the next 5 years, there will be hundreds of large stores in the country.

In less than half a year, the media reported that the Gome sports management team had been replaced, and the two stores were dismal. In September of the same year, one of the only two stores in Gome sports business was suspended. According to the latest information, another Gome sports shop has been declared closed in January 8, 2012, which indicates that the construction of the market shop channel has been blocked by the market.

Slowing down the pace and formulating a brand strategy that suits itself is the consensus of sporting goods companies. Ma Gang introduced to the Securities Daily that the sporting goods industry entered a period of adjustment. In recent years, it has decreased from 20% annually to 13% in 2011. It is estimated that the growth rate in 2012 will further slow down to about 5~8%.

And the industry that slows up the pace of growth also makes investment and financing difficult to be as smooth as before. After all, the sporting goods industry has gone through a period of rapid growth, and investment institutions have a clearer understanding of this.

According to incomplete statistics, at present, there are 19 enterprises listed in the sporting goods industry in China. Most enterprises choose the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the market place. What is the reason why the sporting goods industry is more interested in listing overseas? Ma Gang believes that the main reason for listing abroad is that the speed of foreign listing is faster than that of the domestic market, and it is also related to the financing needs of enterprises, the overall strategic planning of enterprises and the attributes of the enterprises themselves (some enterprises themselves are Sino foreign joint ventures or foreign funded Taiwanese funded enterprises). Since the listing of these enterprises, from the performance level, there is joy and worry. "Of course, the performance of capital market and the development of the industry, and the situation of their own business are closely related".

It is worth noting that according to the statistics of journalists, the regional characteristics of the sporting goods enterprises that have landed in the capital market or intend to visit the capital market are very obvious. The vast majority of enterprises are located in Fujian, with the largest number of them in Jinjiang. In view of this situation, Ma Gang believes that "outsourcing is related to the regional environment of enterprises". According to him, the success of Jinjiang's brand is closely related to its manufacturing base of Chinese sports shoes and clothing. It is precisely because of the advantageous geographical position that makes Jinjiang's brand products more cost-effective.

In contrast, Lining, China's trend and Pathfinder do not have the advantage of creating advantages in marketing and brand building, so different enterprises have accumulated different DNA. "From the early stage, enterprises with manufacturing terminals can take the advantage in the competition between products and products, but from the later stage, who will get more consumers' recognition and who will be the ultimate winner?" Ma Gang analysis.