In order to maintain the stock price, the boss Zhou Chengjian reluctantly sold the Meibang Museum in Pudong, Shanghai for 448 million to make up for the huge losses in the clothing business. Some self-media commented on this move and said: “Meitaspan is already in a hurry to sell ‘underpants’.”
In 2019 and 2020, Meterspan Wei has lost more than 800 million yuan for two consecutive years. If it reports a loss again in 2021, the company will be labeled as “ST (Delisting Risk Warning)” and completely lose the capital market. Obviously Zhou Chengjian cannot accept this reality and has to sell Lost his “underpants”.
Faced with media doubts, Zhou Chengjian, who is naturally proud, said something embarrassing: “If we don’t make some decisions, we really have no chance. “It is a disguised admission of the crisis in the United States.
From “not taking the usual path” to “having no way to go”, who has Metersbonwe lost to over the years?
Zhou Chengjian: Because I am poor, my classmates bully me
Metersbonwe’s success is inseparable from Zhou Chengjian’s personality.
According to a former subordinate: “The most obvious characteristic of his personality is his unwillingness to admit defeat and tenacity.”
Born in rural Qingtian, Zhejiang, when Zhou Chengjian was in middle school in the county town, he was looked down upon by his urban classmates because his family was poor, and he was occasionally bullied.
Once, a classmate and Zhou Chengjian had a small dispute. The other party picked up a pen and stabbed a 3-4 cm deep hole into his back. Wound.
This incident greatly impacted Zhou Chengjian’s self-esteem.
He believes that if his family were not poor, he would not be so looked down upon. More than 20 years later, when he became rich, he still mentioned this past incident to the media, which was a bit like Han Xin’s crotch humiliation. “The more this happens, the more I want to prove ‘I am better than you all’.”
After graduating from middle school , 17-year-old Zhou Chengjian stopped studying and started working as a mason in the city. After working for two years, he felt that the money was coming too slowly, so he took a loan from a credit union to start a clothing processing factory.
In 1986, Zhou Chengjian’s clothing factory closed down due to unsalable products and incurred a debt of 300,000 yuan. The 300,000 yuan in the 1980s was at least equivalent to 6 million yuan today. .
Faced with creditors and workers begging for wages, Zhou Chengjian, who was born in poverty, is no longer afraid, “If you owe less money, you are your grandson, if you owe more money to them It’s grandson”.
Wealth, repay the principal with interest.
Zhou Chengjian, who has a tough personality, withstood the tremendous pressure and started a new garment factory in Wenzhou with only 9,000 yuan left. In the early 1980s, Wenzhou was full of entrepreneurial spirit. Wenzhou people started their fortunes by relying on leather shoes and clothes, and became the first group of people to become rich after China’s reform and opening up.
Absorbing the lessons from the last failure, he pays special attention to sales, and is studying what kind of sales every day. Clothing is the best seller. It is said that once, he worked overtime overnight to proof a suit. Because he was too tired, the sleeves were an inch short. After a large number of ready-made clothes were made, the employees were dumbfounded. Zhou Chengjian had no choice but to add other fabric to the cuffs of his suit to make it longer. After being put on the market, it became an unexpected hit, and people gave this “defective product” a new name: casual suits.
In 1993, 29-year-old Zhou Chengjian had already earned his first million.
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Zhou Chengjian: The richer you are, the bigger your temper is.
China’s richest people have a common problem. They pretend to be humble in front of the media and say official things like “my success is luck”. But in private, they are crazy and attribute their success to their superiority to others. Ability.
Especially for a rich man like Zhou Chengjian, who was born in a low-income family, he becomes even more arrogant after becoming successful.
“First Financial Daily” reported that a resigned employee commented: “I left Smith Barney, not because of different ideas, but because of Mr. Zhou’s temper. .
Pointing at other people’s noses, scolding, slamming the table and yelling, that is commonplace.” No. Zhou Chengjian, who became a millionaire at the age of 30, has power and confidence, but he should not disrespect others, just like others disrespected him in middle school.
Of course Zhou Chengjian, who is on the rise in his life, will not care about these comments, and his wealth will continue to grow.
Zhou Chengjian, who often goes to Shanghai to inspect the market, found that branded clothes are more than twice as expensive as home-made clothes, which made him want to start retailing. . He said, “Clothing wholesale is just like the vegetable market, it’s messy and there are no stalls.Investors are paying more and more attention to “product power”.
From 2012 to 2014, Metersbonwe’s sales declined for three consecutive years, from a peak of 1.206 billion to 146 million. The more stores opened, , the profit is getting thinner
In 2015, it suffered a direct loss of 432 million. Until this year, Meibang has never made a profit of more than 50 million in a year. The only two years of profit were all maintained by buying land. . The stock price fell from 13 yuan to more than 1 yuan, evaporating 90% of the market value.
Data source: Flush
A wave of store closures followed. From 2016 to 2020, 3,217 stores were directly closed, 61% of stores closed down, and the number of stores opened also disappeared from the company’s financial reports, which is evident in the ugliness.
Uniqlo and ZARA, which speak for themselves with their products, have entered a period of expansion. Uniqlo has grown from 13 stores to 767 stores, and ZARA has grown from 14 stores to 593 stores.
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Zhou Chengjian: If we don’t change, we really have no chance
People familiar with Zhou Chengjian said: “Mr. Zhou’s temper has changed a lot in the past few years, and he works hard to control his emotions.”
The crisis situation of the enterprise made Zhou Chengjian see clearly the cruelty of market competition, and he no longer acted complacently and arbitrarily. During the meeting, he said: “I have such a bad temper that I turn out to be like a tyrant, cursing people for no reason.” This was a self-examination.
Since 2017, Zhou Chengjian has been trying to save the crisis. Judging from operations such as the title of “Qi Pa Shuo”, the transformation of national fashion style clothing, and the launch of online shopping APPs, Meibang is trying to keep up with the times, but with little success.
News updates on the company’s official website have almost stagnated, and no more than three major events are announced in a year.
The news released is all about the new spokesperson Wang Peiyu and the like. The clothing industry is a traditional industry with little capital story to tell.
In the past few years, Li Ning’s bet on the post-90s generation failed. With tens of billions of inventory, Li Ning, which had been relegated to the second line, had to come back, go crazy to stock up, and set a new target The development direction of the “national trend” style has finally brought Li Ning back to the track of profitability.
Metersbonwe, abandoned by the post-80s generation, has not yet found its direction.
No wonder Zhou Chengjian lamented: “If (Meibang) doesn’t make some decisions, there will really be no chance.” Perhaps Meibang should return to the nature of clothing and focus on design , Respect design, if the product is good, consumers will naturally pay for it.
Just like when we mention Uniqlo, we don’t first think of who its spokesperson is. When we mention Smith Barney, we still think of Jay Chou. The problem is that Jay Chou didn’t appear. The album has been a long time coming.
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