Recently, its "Antarctic" brand products were named by the market supervision department.
On July 6th, the colored cotton kimono three-piece suit and baby underwear with the trademark "Antarctic Man" were notified by Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Administration that the rope was unqualified, and the trademark was authorized by Antarctic Man (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. ..
On July 9, Time Weekly reporter called Antarctic e-commerce on product quality management, brand authorization procedures and other issues. The relevant person in charge of the company said that it is not convenient to be interviewed for the time being and will contact the relevant person in charge to answer the interview questions. As of press time, the reporter has not received a reply.
Behind the repeated exposure of quality problems, Antarctic e-commerce has an unusually bright performance.
In 20 19, Antarctic e-commerce realized an operating income of 3.907 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of16.52%; The company realized a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 65.438+0.206 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.06%.
Among them, the gross profit margin of brand integrated service business reached 93.36%, and the revenue increased by 37.89% year-on-year. Coupled with the dealer brand authorization business, the revenue of Antarctic e-commerce OEM business is as high as 65.438+30.5 billion yuan.
Judging from the stock price, Antarctic e-commerce has been on the rise for several months. Wind data shows that during the 67 days from April 1 to July 10, the share price of Antarctic e-commerce rose by 106.59%.
The continuous growth of performance and the fiery stock price are in sharp contrast with the brand goods that have repeatedly exposed quality problems. How long can Antarctic e-commerce win a profitable business?
"profitable business"
"Assuming that the cost of thermal underwear produced by any local factory is 15 yuan, it is difficult to sell it to 29 yuan online. If you label the Antarctic, you can sell it to 59 yuan. " On July 10, a person familiar with the OEM operation in Yiwu told the reporter of Time Weekly the truth about the "brand integrated service business" of Antarctic e-commerce.
According to public information, in 2008, Antarctic people who started with thermal underwear started the brand authorization business model. This year, Antarctic people cut off all the production lines and sales ends, sold all the factories that have been in operation for more than 10 years, and only kept the brand "Antarctic people".
Since then, the brand licensing business of Antarctic people has never stopped, and has gradually evolved into today's "Antarctic e-commerce".
At present, Antarctic e-commerce does not purchase and sell related products, but collects brand comprehensive service fees and dealer brand authorization fees according to the brand authorization services and industrial chain services provided by the company, which is equivalent to 3%-6% of GMV (total turnover).
On July 9th, Ma Gang, an expert in the clothing industry, told Time Weekly that under this mode, Antarctic e-commerce kept the light asset mode and shared IP with partners to make money. "The company can engage in intellectual property development and operation planning flexibly and professionally."
Under the blessing of this model, the GMV of Antarctic e-commerce brands continues to skyrocket.
The data shows that in 20 19, the statistical GMV of Antarctic e-commerce in various e-commerce channels reached 30.559 billion yuan, up 48.92% year-on-year. Among them, the Antarctic brand GMV was 2710.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.86%.
This is an amazing data. According to the "White Paper on the Development of Brand Licensing Industry in China in 2020" released in May this year, the annual retail sales of authorized goods in China in 20 19 reached 99.2 billion yuan, up by 15.9% year-on-year. In other words, the retail sales of authorized commodities of Antarctic e-commerce alone reached 30.8% of the annual retail sales of China.
The performance of Antarctic e-commerce has also risen. During the three years from 20 17 to 20 19, the revenue of Antarctic e-commerce was 986 million yuan, 3.353 billion yuan and 3.907 billion yuan, with growth rates of 89.22%, 2405438+02% and 16.52% respectively.
Under this model, the revenue scale confirmed by Antarctic e-commerce is relatively small, and there is no cost of sales and inventory, so there is a very high gross profit margin.
According to the disclosure, in 20 18 and 20 19, the gross profit margin of Antarctic e-commerce brand comprehensive service industry was 94. 1 1% and 93.36% respectively, and the gross profit margin of dealer brand authorization business was 96.52% and 94.85% respectively.
Similarly, in the Blue Ocean House without its own factory, the gross profit margin of online sales in 20 19 was only 50.79%.
Thanks to the strong pull of the gross profit margin of brand licensing business, in 20 19, the overall gross profit margin of Antarctic e-commerce was as high as 38.50% and the net profit was as high as120.6 billion.
According to Antarctic e-commerce, in 20 19, the gross profit of its brand comprehensive service business increased from 847 million yuan in 20 18 to1590,000 yuan, an increase of 3120,000 yuan, which is 20 19 of the company.
On July 1 1, Cheng Weixiong, an expert in brand management of textiles and garments and general manager of Shanghai Liang Qi Brand Management Co., Ltd., told Time Weekly that from the perspective of making money, Antarctic e-commerce is a "good deal".
"At the moment when online traffic dominates the business model, Antarctic e-commerce has made the ultimate integration of online resources. Within a few years, an underwear brand has become a full-category brand, which has successfully catered to the needs of the sinking market and achieved great economic benefits." Cheng Weixiong said.
Decline in brand value
However, it is generally believed that the business model of Antarctic e-commerce lacks social responsibility.
On July 10, Lai Yang, president of Beijing Jingshang Circulation Strategy Research Institute, told Time Weekly that under this business model, it is difficult for Antarctic e-commerce to control distributors and suppliers. "It is difficult to monitor the quality assurance with large-scale authorization, and the price system will be chaotic."
The 20 19 annual report of Antarctic e-commerce shows that during the reporting period, the total number of its cooperative suppliers was113, of which about 500 were major cooperative suppliers. The total number of cooperative dealers is 45 13, and there are 5800 authorized stores.
Its brand quality has been named by the market supervision department many times.
This year alone, in addition to the above-mentioned children's wear "accident", in June, the nominal trademark "Antarctic Man" 10 kg rice barrel was found to be unqualified by Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Administration; In April, Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision Bureau named the outdoor jacket sold by Arctic Rock outdoor franchise store as Antarctic unqualified; In March, the State Administration of Market Supervision organized the 20 19 second batch of special spot checks on the quality of online goods. Unqualified products include travel bags produced by Antarctic e-commerce.
At present, it is even difficult to determine whether all products with the Antarctic logo come from suppliers authorized by Antarctic e-commerce.
On July 12, a person in charge of matchmaking for Antarctic brands told Time Weekly that at present, the authorization control of Antarctic people is very tight, but there are still channels for companies that need individual e-commerce platforms to get the authorization of Antarctic people. "The license fee for clothing and home textiles is the same, with a deposit of 5,000 yuan and a license fee of 1. 1 1,000 yuan. You don't have to check the quality of the products, but you have to get 2,000 sets of 2 yuan tags every month. "
The source said that after becoming a distributor, Antarctic e-commerce can help introduce authorized factories. Dealers can choose to take goods from authorized factories, or they can choose to take "labels" instead of taking goods.
According to media reports, Antarctic dealers do not need to go through Antarctica to purchase goods from authorized manufacturers. They only need to sign a nominal contract with the authorized factory to buy the Antarctic trademark in the name of the factory, and then go to the wholesale market to purchase the goods themselves and hang a tag to sell them.
In Cheng Weixiong's view, this is not a long-term prosperous business model, in which the brand value of Antarctic people is decreasing. "Only focus on short-term interests, not long-term interests. To some extent, its existence is a squeeze on the industry, and bad money drives out good money. "
Additional traffic service
Cheng Weixiong pointed out that under this model, Antarctic e-commerce will benefit in the short term, but the bottleneck will follow. "Its scale is difficult to maintain such rapid expansion today, and its future growth is limited."
The data shows that the growth rate of net profit of Antarctic e-commerce has indeed slowed down in recent years.
In 20 15, the net interest rate of Antarctic e-commerce increased as high as 158.37%, while in 20 19, the data was only 36.06%. In the first quarter of 2020, the net profit of Antarctic e-commerce was 65.438+0.28 billion yuan, with a growth rate of only 5.28%.
For brand licensing business, Antarctic e-commerce will continue to acquire different brands.
20 19 annual report indicates that listed companies intend to introduce other brands through acquisition, cooperation and new establishment, so as to better construct the brand matrix of listed companies.
"The essence of business operation is the intrinsic value of the brand. Intrinsic value cannot be solved by external business adjustment behavior. " Lai Yang said that the business model of Antarctic e-commerce exhausted the real vitality of the brand. In the long run, the influence of well-known brands will eventually "die out", and consumers may not continue to pay for the newly acquired brands of Antarctic e-commerce.
Perhaps the success or failure time of the Antarctic e-commerce model will give a conclusion.
However, judging from the actual operation of Antarctic e-commerce in recent years, it seems that it is also "looking for a way out".
20 17 Antarctic e-commerce acquisition time interconnection, and gradually increase the hot traffic business.
In the past three years, the mobile Internet media delivery platform business through time interconnection has accounted for an increasing proportion in the revenue of Antarctic e-commerce. During the three years from 20 17 to 20 19, the proportions were 22.36%, 65.64% and 62.23% respectively.
At this point, Antarctic e-commerce is transforming into an e-commerce service-oriented enterprise. However, compared with the brand comprehensive service business whose gross profit margin often exceeds 90%, the gross profit margin of its Internet media delivery platform business was only 7.5% in 20 19.
At the same time, in 20 19, Time Internet brought 243 1 100 million yuan of operating income to Antarctic e-commerce, but it also brought 2.249 billion yuan of operating costs.
The value of brand authorization business is decreasing, and the traffic business is still not independent. How far can Antarctic e-commerce go when it loses its factory?