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Jeanswest, known as the “king of jeans”, is a childhood memory of many post-90s, but recently the former clothing giant went bankrupt. In fact, under the double-sided attack of international fast fashion brands and e-commerce, a number of old clothing, including Jeanswest, have gone downhill, and the wave of store closures has intensified.
Ramp downhill after high-speed expansion
“I used to think of it as the top brand, the most eye-catching shop in the pedestrian street.” “Jeanswest and Baleno are youth that cannot be returned.” …… In the past few days, the topic of “Jeanswest bankrupt and closure of 1,300 stores” on Weibo has attracted 100 million views, and many netizens lamented the youth memories that Jeanswest left for themselves.
Recently, Jeanswest, an Australian retail clothing brand founded in 1972, announced that it has entered the bankruptcy liquidation management process. It is reported that managers will study all options for restructuring or selling Jeanswest, and the brand will also seek acquirers or investors with strong willingness. Jeanswest will continue to operate during the receivership proceedings.
Jeanswest also had high-light moments. Due to the optimism of the Chinese mainland market, in 1990 Yang Zhao and Yang Xun’s brothers Glorious Sun Group acquired Jeanswest and opened its first mainland store in Shanghai in 1993. Backed by the genes of foreign brands and the blessing of Hong Kong companies, Jeanswest, together with a number of international brands such as Baleno and Giordano, has enjoyed the first wave of benefits of the vigorous development of China’s clothing market after the reform and opening up, and has also established clothing brand awareness for Chinese consumers.
Due to its high-quality and inexpensive positioning and sales strategy, Jeanswest is highly sought after in the majority of second- and third-tier cities, and has become the youth memory of many “small-town youths”. In 2012, Jeanswest reached a peak of 2,500 Chinese mainland stores, and in 2013 sales reached nearly HK$5 billion.
But after rapid expansion, Jeanswest went downhill. Since 2013, Jeanswest has closed more than 1,300 stores. On August 27, 2018, Glorious Sun Group, its parent company, announced that it had sold Jeanswest’s brand of mainland apparel retail, which had been losing money for years, to Yang Zhao and Yang Xun, the group’s founders and major shareholders, for HK$800 million, and Jeanswest’s clothing business in the Chinese mainland had been divested. In 2019, Glorious Sun Group spun off Jeanswest’s business in Australia and New Zealand.
The impact of e-commerce lagged behind the market
Why did the former “King of Jeans” fall here?
Jeanswest brand founder Arist Norwood has publicly stated that in recent years, Jeanswest has obviously lost its market direction and lost its attractiveness to core consumer groups. He believes that Jeanswest’s clothes are “too miscellaneous” and do not “lead the fashion” at all, and hopes that Jeanswest can reorganize and operate. James Stewart, head of KPMG’s retail restructuring practice, believes that Jeanswest’s bankruptcy and liquidation situation is mainly due to the difficult market environment and fierce competition in the online e-commerce market.
As a traditional clothing brand, Jeanswest does face multiple blows. After Jeanswest won the hearts of “small-town youth”, a number of international fast fashion brands such as ZARA, H&M, UNIQLO and so on have also entered China, and are favored by young people with cheap prices and fashionable styles.
In recent years, with the rise of e-commerce, physical clothing retail has been hit harder. Consumers can conveniently buy various styles of clothes at affordable prices on e-commerce platforms, while the old clothing business ideas are conservative and farther and farther away from customers. The reporter’s search of Dianping.com found that Jeanswest has only 16 stores left in Beijing, most of which are located outside the fifth ring road, mainly stationed in traditional department stores, outlet malls and supermarkets.
“Jeanswest’s clothes are of good quality, but the style is earthy.” Seeing the news of Jeanswest’s bankruptcy and liquidation, Wang Yue, a post-90s girl, found that she hadn’t bought Jeanswest for a long time. “I was happy to wear Jeanswest in middle school, but I never bought it again after I went to college.” In Wang Yue’s view, its style can no longer attract young people.
Old clothing brands have collectively suffered from cold in recent years
Not only Jeanswest, but also popular clothing brands such as Baleno, Giordano, and Metersbonwe during the same period are constantly shrinking their business. From 2011 to 2016, Baleno closed 3,000 stores in six years, and Giordano, once known as the “GAP of Asia”, gradually moved away from prime locations and closed loss-making stores.
As once the “first national women’s clothing brand”, La Chapelle is experiencing difficult times. As of the end of June 2019, the number of offline outlets in the company has decreased by more than 2,400 compared with the end of 2018, equivalent to a net decrease of one-quarter in the number of outlets, with an average of 13 stores closed per day. In December last year, La Chapelle’s wholly-owned subsidiary, La Chapelle Enterprise Management, also transferred its 60% equity interest in Zhiji Industry for a transaction consideration of 1 yuan.
Fugui Bird, which won the “King of China’s Genuine Leather Shoes”, was delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the shoe company “Noble Bird” was heavily indebted, Daphne lost huge losses in women’s shoes, and Belle was delisted… The former “shoe kings” also collectively suffered cold.
Industry insiders analyzed that with the upgrading of consumption, consumers have higher requirements for the quality and style design of clothing, and more creative brands in the market are innovating, while traditional clothing brands have not kept up with the rapidly changing market, and eventually they are getting farther and farther away from young people. While closing stores on a large scale, some old brands are constantly looking for new ways out and trying to differentiate development. For example, Baleno opened a children’s clothing zone at the supermarket counter last year, and cooperated with cartoon IPs such as Thomas Little Train, Super Flying Man, and My Little Pony that are popular all over the world to seek self-help by increasing the children’s clothing business.
(Beijing Daily reporter Ma Jing)
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