Editor’s note:
A sudden epidemic has not only affected my country’s industrial chain and supply chain It has a profound impact and has a huge impact on the textile and clothing industry. Faced with a series of challenges such as blocked foreign trade, sluggish domestic demand, and declining sales, industries and companies, while withstanding tremendous pressure, have also begun self-rescue and breakthroughs in different ways, looking for opportunities in times of crisis.
How to deal with the changes that have not been seen in a century, find a way out in the fog, and re-energize the vitality? At this moment, we must accurately identify changes, respond scientifically, actively seek changes, recognize the potential for change, and be firm. Confidence, being good at capturing and creating opportunities from immediate crises and difficulties, is the counterattack path for China’s textile industry to innovate and start again under the epidemic.
To defeat the epidemic and embark on the journey again, our confidence cannot be reduced, and our goal of becoming a textile power cannot be changed.
In order to better help enterprises see the essence through changes and follow trends to find direction, “China Textile” magazine has launched a series of special reports on “Seizing Opportunities and Determining Confidence”, focusing on foreign trade and For the two markets of domestic demand, we should start from different dimensions of industry and enterprise to understand the current development status of the textile industry, so as to prescribe the right medicine, plan in advance, and prepare for high-quality development.
In recent years, knitted clothing has been favored by consumers, especially in the European and American markets, because of its softness, comfort, body-fitting, elasticity and other characteristics. Driven by , the categories of knitted products are getting wider and wider, and the fields involved are getting wider and wider. The proportion of the industry is constantly increasing, the development momentum is strong, and the proportion of exports is also rising.
Affected by the epidemic, international brands such as Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo, which mainly work on knitted fabrics and work closely with Chinese OEMs, have successively closed stores, canceled orders, or delayed delivery. , even some domestic leisure running brands have experienced serious sales declines and even suffered losses. Although knitting clusters and enterprises have made remarkable achievements in breaking through online, enterprises still feel “high pressure” in the face of the unknown international situation and the slow recovery of the market.
Leisure sports brand performance declines
The knitting industry experienced heavy downward pressure in the first quarter
Due to the impact of the epidemic, major international brands such as Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, Nike, Adidas, etc. that work closely with Chinese OEMs have successively stores, chargebacks or delayed deliveries, and even previously high-digit sales at home have seen a sharp decline. For example, Zara has closed 3,785 stores around the world, including all its Spanish stores; H&M has closed all stores in nearly ten countries and regions in Italy, Poland, and the Czech Republic; Uniqlo parent company Fast Retailing has also temporarily closed all its stores in the United States. 50 stores. In terms of sales, Nike has maintained double-digit revenue growth in Greater China for five and a half consecutive years (22 quarters). Now it has also experienced a “brake” in the first quarter (December 1, 2019 – February 29, 2020). , Greater China revenue fell 5% year-on-year (down 4% excluding exchange rate factors). Due to the high dependence of knitting enterprises on external demand, the pressure on enterprises is constantly emerging.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to March, textile regulated enterprises completed a total of 4,618.1669 million pieces of clothing output, a year-on-year decrease of 20.29%, of which knitted clothing 2,255.1859 million pieces, a year-on-year decrease of 23.73%. From January to March, the main business income of 2110 enterprises in the knitted fabric category was 48.546 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 23.64%, and the total profit was 1.927 billion yuan, a decrease of 610 million yuan year-on-year; the main business income of 3679 enterprises in the knitted clothing category was 834.06 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 21.47%; total profit was 2.970 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.326 billion yuan.
Not only international brands, but also domestic leisure sports brands Semir, Metersbonwe, Giordano, Anta, Li Ning, 361 Degrees, etc. have also experienced sales declines to varying degrees. Among them, Semir achieved revenue of 2.738 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 33.51%; Metersbonwe achieved revenue of 2.738 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 33.51%, with a first-quarter pre-loss of 150-250 billion yuan; Giordano’s first-quarter sales fell 34.6%, if converted at a fixed exchange rate, a decrease of 33%; Anta’s sales fell by 20% to 25% year-on-year; Li Ning’s offline channels (including retail and wholesale) recorded a low-end decline of 20%-30%; 361 degrees Retail sales fell by 25%-30% compared with the same period last year… It can be seen that leisure sports brands were greatly affected in the first quarter.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter, the retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats, and knitted textiles by units above designated size in my country decreased by 32.2% year-on-year. Retail sales of goods decreased by 15.1% year-on-year, 35.5 and 34.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year. In this regard, some experts said that although the domestic epidemic has been effectively controlled and consumption is restarting, as the epidemic situation in Europe becomes severe, knitting companies that mainly focus on foreign trade or processing will not have a good time in the short term. Businesses must be mentally prepared.
Reduced orders and severe foreign trade situation
Enterprises are under far more pressure than expected
“March and April every year are the peak months for foreign trade factories.Businesses and enterprises have new vitality.
In order to reduce the impact of the epidemic, Dalang, a sweater cluster, launched the “Dalang Woolen Live Broadcast Month” event in March, attracting more than 200 companies to participate, and even Dongguan City Business Huang Chaodong, deputy director of the bureau, and Zeng Yue, deputy mayor of Dalang Town, Dongguan, a famous woolen town in China, also walked into the live broadcast room to introduce the development of Dalang’s local related industries to netizens and promote the company’s high-quality single products. By uniting major e-commerce platforms, the event opens a green channel for enterprises and uses live broadcast management tools to reduce the cost and threshold of “electric shock” for enterprises. It not only builds a new live broadcast channel for physical stores in the woolen business district to resume work and production, but also leverages the power of e-commerce. The new model of business + live broadcast or social networking has effectively promoted the rapid recovery of Dalang woolen textile industry.
With the popularity of e-commerce live broadcasts, it is not only Internet celebrities who are bringing goods now, but also many heads of clustered local governments have also entered the live broadcast room to make guest appearances. “Expert in carrying goods”. Recently, Tongxiang Mayor Yu Huiyou appeared in the live broadcast room and had a close conversation with fans, allowing many people to intuitively understand the Puyuan sweater industry. The lively and interesting live broadcast format also allowed online buyers to see clearly the Puyuan knitting industry. In the live broadcast room of Jiaxing’s Cloud Shopping Festival, Pan Minfang, member of the Standing Committee of the Tongxiang Municipal Party Committee and Minister of Propaganda, brought five Tongxiang specialty products, including an all-wool sleeveless embroidered dress from Zhejiang Qianqiu Knitted Clothing Co., Ltd. I was deeply impressed by this product… According to the latest logistics data released by Puyuan Logistics Park during the May Day holiday, the consignment volume of the Puyuan sweater market during the May Day holiday increased by 18% year-on-year compared to the same period in 2019. , the unloading volume increased by 20% year-on-year in 2019, which greatly boosted the confidence of the industry and enterprises in “recovery”.
In response to the impact of the epidemic, Yang Jichao, former vice president of the China Textile and Apparel Industry Federation, previously stated in an interview with the media that under the epidemic, knitting companies generally suffered some economic losses. It may even be a fatal blow to some small and medium-sized enterprises, but excellent enterprises will definitely be inspired by it and better plan for the future. “This epidemic is like a big test, testing the company’s ability to respond quickly. To turn crisis into opportunity, companies must have a keen sense of the market and the ability to innovate. Currently, offline sales have been hit hard, and they must speed up the use of social media and social media. , live broadcast and other new retail tools, open up full sales marketing, and at the same time accelerate the training and construction of professional talents. Talents are the core assets of enterprises. I believe that knitting enterprises that have experienced the baptism of this storm, honed their internal skills and faced difficulties, will I will definitely embrace a new world.”</p
