Ningbo, known as the “Red Gang Tailor”, has a number of clothing tycoons, each of whom has chosen a different path in the new era. In addition to the clothing business, Peacebird has invested in car manufacturing; Shanshan Group, the former “number one clothing stock”, has divested its clothing business and turned into a new energy listed company; Luo Meng has added real estate, energy, and hotels to its main business of clothing. Run a business. Facing changes in the business era and consumer demand, Youngor is adjusting its strategy.
In the office of Youngor Chairman Li Rucheng, there are three large display boards placed on the floor. The above introduction is not the development history of my own company, but the three giants of the international luxury goods industry: Richemont Group, Kering Group and LVMH.
The display board lists a number of brands under each company, and also separates their turnover and profits in a conspicuous place – in the past In 2017, the turnover of these three companies was over 10 billion euros, with profits ranging from 1.8 billion to 6.9 billion euros, amounting to tens of billions of yuan.
Li Rucheng likes to sit on the sofa facing the three exhibition boards. When he looks up, he is determined to “see the wise and think of others”.
Tailor Stock God
In October this year, Youngor held its 40th anniversary conference . The following data were announced at the meeting: 31.5 billion yuan in national taxes were paid, and 17 billion yuan was distributed to shareholders. This performance is supported not only by clothing, but also by real estate and financial investment.
As early as 1992, Youngor entered the real estate field, but it will have to wait until the new century to truly achieve scale. After 2015, the net profit contribution rate of the real estate business has increased year by year. While acquiring land, Youngor built a healthy town and moved towards the health tourism industry.
“Stock trading” began in 1999. Youngor has successively invested in companies such as CITIC Securities, Guangbo, Yike Technology, and Bank of Ningbo, making profits of tens of billions of yuan. Li Rucheng is regarded as China’s “Warren Buffett” and the “magic fortune teller” in the business world, but he himself does not think so.
He told reporters that Younger has been “lucky” along the way. In terms of clothing, during the period of reform and opening up and the shortage economy, the local government cultivated a large number of township enterprises. At that time, there were land concessions, cheap labor, and the right time, place and people. Regarding his achievements in the investment business, he also appealed to luck, believing that it was “unintentional intervention”. The original intention of many investment projects is not to make a lot of money, but to be driven by the times or events.
However, unlike industry, investment profits and losses are more volatile. After 2015, Youngor lost billions of yuan in investment, and public opinion called it a “miscalculation by a divine fortune teller.” After repeated losses and changes in the investment environment, the “tailor stock god” decided not to play anymore.
On May 20, 2018, Li Rucheng announced his return to the main business at the shareholders’ meeting, saying, “The United States has Nike, Germany has Adidas, and Youngor is fully capable of becoming such a group. “.
Ningbo, known as the “Red Gang Tailor”, has a number of clothing tycoons, each of whom has chosen a different path in the new era. In addition to the clothing business, Peacebird has invested in car manufacturing; Shanshan Group, the former “number one clothing stock”, has divested its clothing business and turned into a new energy listed company; Luo Meng has added real estate, energy, and hotels to its main business of clothing. Run a business.
One body with many wings, no matter how much money they make from their sub-businesses, they are best known for their clothing.
I will buy more if I have the opportunity in the future
A weekend in December , at the Youngor store on Yan’an Road, Hangzhou, a man in his forties quickly selected a business suede plaid shirt worth 780 yuan. He said that he works within the system, dresses more formally, and comes to Youngor to buy once every quarter. This is indeed Younger’s target audience.
But the post-90s generation is about to enter their 30s, and the post-00s generation is about to join the main consumer industries. Times are changing, and how they view Youngor has become a more important proposition.
On Zhihu, under the question of “How do you view the Youngor brand?”, a netizen said: “There is nothing to say about the fabric of Youngor shirts. I wore them from the age of 24 to now 34. Years old, but the style is too ordinary.” There are many people who agree with this view. Some netizens believe that Younger is a bit “old” and belongs to his father’s generation.
Faced with changes in the business era and consumer demand, Youngor is adjusting its strategy. In 2016, Li Rucheng announced that he would “rebuild a Youngor in five years” through the textile and apparel industry. The main brand Youngor still focuses on business. In addition, it has launched the high-end men’s clothing brand “MAYOR”, acquired the operating rights of the American brand Hart Max, which focuses on sports and outdoor leisure, in Greater China, and recently launched a women’s clothing brand.
Earlier, Youngor began to study the production of clothing using hemp as the main raw material, with the brand name “Hemp Family”.
People’s thinking about dressing has changed, and Youngor hopes to�Cover people’s dressing needs in different scenarios. Li Rucheng said frankly, “We will also make acquisitions if there are suitable opportunities in the future.”
Reforms are all forced out
The times are not only about today’s Changes have occurred, and Younger is not a change that has only been carried out today.
Li Rucheng bluntly said that every transformation was forced: “In the 1980s, our relationship with the shopping mall was to buy and sell, and we took the money order to pick up the goods. In the 1990s, we wanted to Go to the shopping mall and set up a counter by yourself. Youngor used to have shirts and suits, but now the market has become more casual, and we need to increase the development of new products.”
Revolution is not about treating guests to dinner, and reform is not about relying on just a few items. product line. Youngor’s latest measures include investing 100 million yuan to set up a smart factory, and the second is to open workshops and fashion experience centers.
The large digital screen outside the smart factory displays the production status of factories in different regions, and also presents the work of each station in the Ningbo headquarters factory. Once there is a product backlog, the supervisor will go over to check it immediately. The smart factory not only improves production efficiency by 20%, but also provides the basis for flexible supply – privately customized models can also be produced from this production line.
Outside Ningbo Youngor Company, there is a fashion experience store No. 001. Inside, there are not only major clothing brands owned by Youngor, but also intelligent shopping guide robots. At the same time, different business formats such as Luckin Coffee and amusement areas are also in the museum.
“We don’t want to create a place just to buy clothes, but also a place where you can play and relax.” Li Rucheng said.
How effective are smart factories, experience stores, and workshops?
“We are far from successful now. We are still in the investment stage and need to keep trying.” Li Rucheng said modestly.
This year’s Double 11, Youngor tried a small test in China, using data technology to accurately reach 10 million people online, which brought Youngor Quarter increments. In addition, Youngor offers a full range of goods, online transactions and offline services. In the end, sales across the entire network reached 124 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 88.8%.
What is Li Rucheng thinking?
He hopes that through data technology, he can know what consumers need and what Youngor can provide; he hopes that online can be used as a promotion and sales channel, and offline can provide experience and services. Completely connect online and offline, and finally achieve improvement in square footage efficiency and human efficiency.
“In the past, I only knew how to keep an eye on consumers’ pockets, but I didn’t know how to serve customers. The service was to provide discounts to VIPs. With the insights of data technology, we can know .”
In the future, the number of 3,000 stores will be reduced, small and medium-sized stores will be closed, and more large stores of more than 1,000 square meters with a full range of categories will be opened. Eventually, the total number of stores will be around 1,000. Through cooperation with Alibaba Cloud, all 1,000 stores will be turned into smart stores. Data technology will determine which products sell well and which services are popular.
The full hanging system allows fabrics to be turned into clothing “without touching the ground”
This smart factory, which Youngor invested 100 million yuan to renovate, has a total area of 10,000 square meters. The renovation was completed at the end of April this year. It is specially used to produce high-end customized suits with a market price of more than 6,800 yuan.
The reporter saw at the scene that several red and white hanging systems above the production line were carrying various semi-finished fabrics between various workstations. Workers take the fabrics from the system, complete their work skillfully, and return them to the hanging system. At this time, the conveyor belt will automatically take them to the next work station.
The reporter noticed that there is a number on each hanging frame here. Zhang Yi, a member of the smart factory project team, said that it is the “identity code” of the suit, which contains all information such as fabric, size, and process standards. This information is displayed to workers through a dedicated tablet in front of each workstation. In this way, when the fabric arrives at the work station, the workers have already understood the process requirements of the suit, and there will be no deviations during sewing.
The production cycle is shortened from 15 days to 2 days
“The craftsmanship of a customized suit includes several processes such as fabric cutting, sewing, and finishing. In the past, the flow of fabric between the various processes was entirely manual, and there was no automatic matching between suits and trousers in the later stage. The hanging system solves this problem. However, looking around the world, even in relatively advanced suit production factories, the hanging system only participates in one process of sewing or ironing, while using a full range of hanging systems that connects sewing and ironing. We are the first smart factory to use the system to intelligently pair tops and pants,” Zhang Yi said.
By issuing instructions through the control system, the fabric can “know” where it is going and what it is doing. From scraps of fabric to a set of ready-made garments that can be directly sold, the entire process is completed on the hanging system without the cloth touching the ground, thus saving a lot of costs in terms of people, materials and time.
“More than 70 pieces of fabric and more than 300 processes. It used to cost 15 to produce a tailor-made Youngor suit. Instead of days, it now only takes 2 days. After the smart factory goes online, the annual output is expected to reach more than 140,000 sets, which is an increase of 20% in terms of production capacity.” Zhang Yi said.
008.png”>
By issuing instructions through the control system, the fabric can “know” where it wants to go and what it should do, starting from the cut pieces. From the fabric to a set of ready-made garments that can be directly sold, the entire process “the cloth does not touch the ground” is completed on the hanging system, thus saving a lot of costs in people, materials and time.
“With more than 70 pieces of fabric and more than 300 processes, it used to take 15 days to produce a tailor-made Youngor suit, but now it only takes 2 days. After the smart factory goes online, it is expected that the annual output will reach more than 140,000 units, an increase of 20% in terms of production capacity. “Zhang Yi said.</p
