It is not an easy task to portray Smith Barney's expansion path this year. As of press time, in the past eight months, Smith Barney apparel buyers footprint almost all over the country, in 19 provinces or cities to buy or rent 39 commercial real estate. The international financial crisis so that most people shiver, but Smith Barney shop to create an opportunity. For Smith Barney costumes, the financial crisis did not seem to disrupt their original plans to speed up the store's move to prove everything. Catalyst or motivation? According to statistics, in the first 8 months of this year, Smith Barney bought 6 commercial properties of 28,997.66 square meters in 6 provinces including Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi Provinces, involving an amount of 785 million yuan. Smith Barney clothing rental stores even more large-scale, in Shanghai and other 16 provinces and cities rented 33 stores, the total area of ​​63,336 square meters of shops, involving 147 million yuan of rent. According to Smith Barney costumes listed when the plan, the first eight months of this year's large-scale purchase, rent commercial real estate means that the expansion plan has completed half. According to the development goals of Smith Barney costumes, plans to purchase and lease in the city of one million and above cities to buy 68 new stores, including 31 outlets, franchise stores 37, the first 8 months of this year, Smith Barney total 39 commercial real estate revenue in the bag, more than half of the target 68. For the rapid expansion of the store, Smith Barney costume chairman Zhou Chengjian told CBN reporter: "The opportunities and challenges brought by the international financial crisis coexist. The opportunities come from commercial real estate rentals and the relative reasonable prices. The challenge of course is from the overall business environment The impact of the downturn on all businesses is being hit to some extent by Smith Barney, fast-selling and pin-outs, but overall we believe opportunities are still greater than the challenge. "According to publicly available data, Smith Barney purchased this year Of the six commercial real estate average price of 27,073 yuan per square meter, the average rent of 33 stores per square meter price of 2,317 yuan. According to the plan of Smith Barney costumes, even without an international financial crisis, large-scale acquisition and leasing of commercial real estate will be possible. The prospect of the domestic casual wear market is very attractive. According to statistics, in 2006, the total retail sales in the domestic casual clothing market was approximately RMB357.1 billion, accounting for 58.97% of the total domestic apparel market. The CAGR was 15.31% from 2001 to 2006. It is estimated that the CAGR of total retail sales of China's casual clothing market will increase to 14.10% in the future and reach a scale of 605.3 billion yuan in 2010, accounting for 58.97% of the total domestic garment market. Buy more than the rent more cost-effective from the Smith Barney costumes to buy large, rental action is easy to see that the amount of the purchase is much larger than the amount of the lease. To buy more than rent more cost-effective, Smith Barney costumes have long been conclusive. According to industry experience data, rental costs accounted for 10% to 15% of the sales revenue of casual wear brand stores. Rents are an important operating cost for casual wear enterprises and the key to profitability of casual wear enterprises. Smith Barney apparel has estimated that while the expansion of the domestic casual wear market is expanding, the continuous growth of domestic economy and real estate prices continue to increase. As a result, the rents of domestic prime retail stores continue to grow. In some cities, especially in first-tier cities, the annual growth rate of rents is as high as 30% Above, this has seriously affected the profitability of casual wear business. By adopting long-term leasing or buying methods, obtaining stable store resources can reduce the cost pressure caused by the rapid rent increase and ensure continuous profitability. Although Smith Barney apparel marketing network covering most parts of China, but the domestic casual wear market still has great potential for development. In the prospectus published in 2008, Smith Barney introduced that there were 94 medium-sized cities in the second-tier market that were not covered yet, and the coverage rate was 33%. There were also 1279 county-level cities in the tertiary market that were not covered and the coverage rate was 64% , There are still a large number of blank markets to be developed. In the market map of Smith Barney costumes, markets such as Northeast, Southwest and Guangdong are relatively weaker. Eight months after the sprint this year, Smith Barney rented three facades in Heilongjiang, one at the facade of Jilin, and purchased 1288 square meters of commercial real estate in Liaoning. The southwestern region bought the "Kyoto Tower" in the downtown area of ​​Chengdu at a cost of more than 370 million yuan and rented three stores in Guangdong. The original market vacancy has been offset. Smith Barney costumes annual report shows that by the end of 2008 its number of stores has reached 2,698, an increase of 28% over the 2106 in late 2007. In addition to the increase in the number of stores, the size of the company's stores has also been expanded. The number of large stores above 500 square meters has reached 215, an increase of 111% over the end of 2007. Whether renting or buying, most of the new stores in Smith Barney are over 1000 square meters. One of the six commercial properties purchased, each with an average floor area of ​​nearly 5000 square meters, rented 33 stores, the average area of ​​each store is about 2,000 square meters. Open shop is a Smith Barney fashion has been pursuing the strategy listed in the prospectus, Smith Barney costumes that the average amount of funds raised for the construction of the store to reach 1,400 square meters. This is the Spanish clothing retail predators ZARA average of 1128.9 square meters per store and H & M's 1201 square meters compared to already on the same level. The advantage of a big shop is that you can fully display the product, but also can significantly improve the consumer shopping environment. The international financial crisis has brought not only opportunities but also troubles. In the first half of this year, affected by the market environment, Smith Barney apparel market growth slowed down, franchisees to reduce the investment to join the market growth was lower than expected. However, Chou Ching-jen did not feel the chill can not resist these circumstances, but firm his idea that adhere to direct-based, supplemented by joining the business model. In such a position, Smith Barney costumes to buy, rent commercial real estate action is expected to continue.