Chapter 401 Goal
If Liu Zhou could acquire a clothing brand, he would not have to wait until the mainland derivatives market took off.

Golden Harvest also has a company called Summit Entertainment, so Liu Zhou can also get a share of the overseas market.

And Summit Entertainment now owns "Twilight", which is very popular among young people.

The first "Twilight" film earned three million US dollars from related clothing licensing. You can imagine how huge the profit was.

Not only movies, but also popular TV series have the same strong ability to bring goods.

The South Korean drama "My Love from the Star" has become a huge hit across Asia, and the costumes worn by the heroine have also been hotly studied among the female community.

So after owning a clothing brand, Liu Zhou also planned to produce this TV series.

Urban Korean dramas are indeed unique. Not only can they make old-fashioned plots very attractive, but they are also very detailed and particular about the costumes and scenery.

Liu Zhou feels that he can intercept more Korean dramas in the future, which can also inspire South Korean screenwriters to create better TV drama scripts.

"Mr. Liu, since you are really planning to acquire a clothing brand in Hong Kong, I won't ask for the specific reasons. I can tell you what I know."

Boss Yang saw Liu Zhou looking at him seriously, so he organized his words and continued:

“There are many clothing brands in Hong Kong, but the following are the more well-known ones.

The first one is IT clothing, but this is a trendy brand. Although it is popular among some young groups, it does not sell in large quantities. I think you will not be satisfied.

The second one is Edinburgh Clothing, which started its brand operation in 1991, but entered the mainland market relatively late, opening its first store in the mainland in 2005.

The third one is Baleno. This clothing brand was established a long time ago, in 1981, but it was acquired by De Yongjia Group in 1996.

De Yongjia Group started out in the textile industry, and later entered the garment industry. It was listed on the Hong Kong stock market in the early 1990s.

After years of development, De Yongjia Group has now become the largest garment OEM company in Asia. Top luxury brands such as Prada, Chanel, and Hermès all turn to them for OEM.

After De Yongjia went public, they also wanted to have their own clothing brand, so they acquired several clothing brands such as Baleno and Legend of Innocence.

Among them, Baleno has developed the best. After entering the mainland, it has developed very rapidly and now has more than 600 specialty stores.

In 2005, it even teamed up with another Hong Kong clothing brand, Giordano, to drive Uniqlo out of the mainland market.

But now, after two or three years of adjustment, Uniqlo, which targets white-collar workers as its consumer group, has made a comeback by taking advantage of the fast fashion brands ZARA and H&M's entry into the mainland.

These brands have expanded rapidly in the past two years, defeating Baleno and Giordano.

These international fast-moving consumer goods brands update new products as quickly as one or two weeks and produce them in small quantities, better catering to the needs of young consumers represented by those born after 90.

However, Baleno still follows the traditional production process. It takes several months from design to production of a piece of clothing. It is launched seasonally and produced in large quantities.

So in comparison, it seems that Baleno has not had any new products for a long time and is gradually being abandoned by consumers.

At the beginning, Huang Bo's line "Brand, Baleno!" in "Crazy Stone" had a great impact on the brand image of Baleno.

But this actually also reflects Baleno’s weakness in neglecting brand strategic planning and standardized management.”

Hearing Boss Yang mention "Crazy Stone", Liu Zhou couldn't help but smile. No wonder he felt somewhat familiar with Baleno when he first heard it.

The reason why Ning Hao mentioned Baleno in the original time and space was to do a favor, because Andy Lau was the spokesperson for Baleno.

But now "Crazy Stone" is invested by Golden Harvest. However, because Baleno is a very well-known brand in the mainland at this time, it was still used by Ning Hao in the movie.

So Baleno was shot while lying down.

"Mr. Yang, you introduced Baleno so clearly. Don't you think Baleno has a greater chance of being acquired?"

“Yes, Baleno is in trouble now, and may even suffer losses. They have already started closing stores in the mainland.

And you may not know that the clothes of Uniqlo and H&M are all manufactured by De Yongjia, but De Yongjia did not learn anything beneficial to its own brand Baleno from its OEM for Uniqlo.

Either De Yongjia pays less and less attention to Baleno, or the relationship between Baleno and its parent company De Yongjia is not very good.

According to the financial report released by De Yongjia this year, due to the increase in OEM orders from Uniqlo and H&M, the revenue contribution of De Yongjia's OEM business has increased by more than 10%, and has achieved three consecutive years of growth.

However, the profit contribution of Baleno has been declining year by year in the past few years, so it should be relatively easy to acquire Baleno. If the price is right, De Yongjia should not refuse to sell it. "

After listening to Boss Yang's analysis, Baleno is indeed a better choice. As for the impact of "Crazy Stone" on its brand, it is not a problem at all for Liu Zhou.

Not to mention other means, if Liu Zhou personally endorses it and wears Baleno in public, this influence can be immediately washed away.

Lei Jun of later generations can save Vancl. Liu Zhou is more popular than Lei Jun of later generations, and his status is not inferior to him. There is no problem in bringing Baleno up. "Are there other brands besides Baleno?"

"There is also a Lion & Dragons store, which opened its first store in Hong Kong in 1987 and has now expanded to Taiwan, Singapore and the mainland.

However, Lion Dragon was listed in the 1990s and is a family business, so they are unlikely to sell the company.

Finally, another well-known one is Giordano mentioned earlier, which is one of the earliest clothing brands established in Hong Kong.

Giordano and Baleno have similar positioning, targeting consumers between 18 and 40 years old, focusing on the youth route, and mainly selling casual wear for men, women and neutrals.

However, unlike Baleno, which cooperates with local state-owned commercial enterprises in various cities in the mainland to establish joint ventures or develop franchise chains through franchising, Giordano is more directly operated.

Giordano was the first Hong Kong clothing brand to enter the mainland, but was overtaken by Baleno, so Giordano also opened up the door to franchising.

Although Giordano, like Baleno, is now in a certain predicament in its development in the mainland, Giordano's overall development is much better than Baleno's.

Giordano not only has exclusive stores in Hong Kong and the Mainland, but also in major cities throughout Southeast Asia.

Not only that, Giordano has expanded to South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand in the past two years.

In addition to its clothing brands, the Giordano Group also has its own garment factories and also undertakes OEM business.

So the value of Giordano Group is much higher.

It was listed in 1991, and according to the current share price, the market value of Giordano Group exceeds HK$1 billion.”

After listening to Boss Yang's introduction, Liu Zhou was most interested in Giordano Group, even though it had the highest market value.

What Liu Zhou values ​​most is that almost all of Giordano Group's specialty stores are directly operated. It has opened stores in Southeast Asia and South Korea, and is also expanding to Australia.

This is undoubtedly extremely attractive to Liu Zhou, who is aiming at the global market.

What's more, Giordano's stores are almost all directly operated, which makes it easier to manage after the acquisition.

Liu Zhou's business philosophy is similar to Giordano's. It also tends to operate directly. Even if it is a franchise, there will be stricter requirements.

Only in this way can we better maintain the brand image.

For example, there is an obvious contrast between Giordano and Baleno in mainland China. Both companies have encountered setbacks in their development in mainland China, but Giordano’s brand image has not been greatly affected and its status remains.

However, the brand image of Baleno has declined a lot. This is not just because of Huang Bo. The main reason is that Baleno's terminal sales partners do not pay attention to maintaining the brand image.

The reason why Baleno opens stores so quickly is that it has very few direct stores, but has more cooperation with local state-owned enterprises and more franchise stores.

What you expect them to understand about brand image is just funny.

So far, Baleno is in a bit of a mess.

If we acquire Baleno, it will be a huge challenge to deal with Baleno and its partners in major cities across the country.

However, Baleno's current brand image has not completely hit rock bottom, and its price is relatively cheap, so the possibility of acquisition is relatively high.

If Baleno is relatively easy to acquire but more troublesome to operate and integrate after the acquisition, then Giordano is more difficult to acquire but relatively easy to operate after the acquisition.

As a listed company, Giordano is rather troublesome to acquire, not to mention that Liu Zhou wants complete control.

"Mr. Yang, who is the largest shareholder of Giordano? Is it the founder of this brand?"

"No, the founder of Giordano is Li Ziying. However, after the company went public, he turned his career to the media industry and gradually reduced his holdings in Giordano Group's shares. He sold out all his shares at the turn of the millennium."

"Li Ziying? Why does this name sound familiar?"

Boss Yang said with a smile:

"Of course he sounds familiar. He has very close ties with the Hong Kong entertainment industry. He is the owner of Next Magazine and Apple Daily, and he is the man that Hong Kong artists hate to death."

"So it's him, no wonder he feels so familiar."

However, Liu Zhou is familiar with this person not only because he is the owner of two gossip media outlets, Next Magazine and Apple Daily, but more importantly, this guy is not a good person.

It would be fine if you just called yourself a banana man, but you actually became the second-rate guy who always charged forward. Many bad things that happened in Hong Kong were caused by this person who always charged forward.

Later he was called one of the four white dogs and received justice.

(End of this chapter)