"In the world there is no way to go more people, it has become a way." In the domestic apparel industry, Metersbonwe was once the most powerful interpreter of this sentence, exactly, its slogan is a " Take an unusual step". At the beginning of its establishment in 1995, it was relegated to "Leather Bag Company" and was predicted by the insiders to "survive for three years." Ten years after its rapid development, it has leapt into the leading brand of casual wear in China. At this moment, the market only knew that the route it took and the famous global sports brand "Nike" did not coincide and could be summed up as "the virtual business model under the light asset strategy." Now, Smith Barney is changing. Smith Barney and the successful grafting of the capital market no longer light clothing array, listed one year, it opened a direct image shop, flagship store, buy a house, buy ground, began to load before. Whether all people know the "light asset" after this road, Smith Barney has completed the negation of the negative, determined to put this "unusual way" also gave up? Smith Barney "light asset" What is the "virtual business model"? We use classic little joke about resource integration. In the American countryside, an old man lives with his youngest son. Suddenly one day, a man found an old man and said he was going to bring his youngest son to the city and make him a son-in-law of Rockefeller. The man found Rockefeller, the American oil magnate, saying to introduce his boyfriend to his daughter and said: "Your future son-in-law will be the vice president of the World Bank," Rockefeller agreed. The man later found the president of the World Bank and asked him to appoint a vice president right away and said: "The vice president you named is the son-in-law of Rockefeller." The president also agreed. Poor little farm son turned into a wealthy son and vice president of the World Bank. Smith Barney in the beginning of doing business, and the above story somewhat similar. At that time, founder Zhou Chengjian did not have much money. He found a clothing label manufacturer and said that you came to help me produce clothes. My clothes are called "Metersbonwe." At the same time, he found another group of people, I'll give you clothing, you go to sales, your sales of clothing called "Metersbonwe." He also did something not easy for ordinary people to do, including designing his own clothes very fashionably, popularizing "Metersbonwe" very well, and managing production and sales well. The first domestic casual wear brand "Metersbonwe" So successful, Zhou Chengjian also be labeled "marketing genius," the name. In theory, the virtual operating company is mainly engaged in the brand and channel, its most prominent feature is "light asset", that is, with less capital expenditure will be able to get higher growth. Smith Barney production outsourcing model, plant, equipment are not required to invest in the sales network expansion in the capital is also very small. From the perspective of investment in fixed assets, as of the end of March last year, the proportion of fixed assets in the total assets of the Company was only 15.53%. As of the end of June this year, the total amount of fixed assets plus construction in progress did not exceed 20% of the total assets. Asset light, fast turnover of the distinctive features, so Smith Barney access to capital markets of all ages. August 2008, the company issued 70 million shares, the actual raising funds of more than 1.3 billion yuan, the successful landing small board. Gradually changed from light to heavy one year later, with the Smith Barney semi-annual report this year and a series of announcements, we found that the company is moving from the original light load into a load forward. Semi-annual report shows that in the first half of this year, the company's total operating income and operating profit growth of 11.29% and -42.86% respectively, net profit attributable to the listed company increased by 28.02%. Why operating profit fell sharply in the case, the net profit can achieve year-on-year growth? Look at the semi-annual report found that financial subsidies and income tax concessions made an important contribution. Abandon the impact of these non-sustainable income, Smith Barney's growth rate of the main industry is actually slowed down in the short term. Securities analyst believes that the first half of this year to join the business operation is not satisfactory, dragged down the company's overall revenue growth. In the first half of the year, the revenue from direct-in-service business and directly-operated business revenue grew by -7.39% and 42.05% respectively. The direct-service revenue accounted for 47.58% of the Company's main business revenue, up 10.41ppts from 37.18% in the same period last year. The acceleration of direct-to-business led to a sharp rise of 9.74 percentage points to 36.83% in the fee rate for the period from 27.08% in the same period last year. Of which, rental and rental deposits and advertising expenses increased by 252.66% and 183.28% respectively over the same period of last year, resulting in a sales expense rate of up to 31.32 %, The cost of direct marketing business has swallowed up the current profits, making the company operating profit fell 42.86% year on year. This is a "load" on rental fees. In addition, the company also began to buy property for the development of direct sales stores. According to the announcements this year, the company has purchased a total of (about) 780 million yuan of investment in stores in Nanchang, Jiangxi, Dandong in Liaoning, Hangzhou in Zhejiang, Xiamen in Fujian, Pingdingshan in Henan and Chengdu in Sichuan. In addition to running a direct store, the company disclosed a plan to buy land this month. The board of directors agreed that the subsidiary, Shanghai Mian Sidi Information Technology Co., Ltd., should find suitable sites for new brands and office building projects for IT services in the next 12 months. How much money to buy land? Notice is not clear, only referred to the Board agreed to bring the shareholders' meeting to authorize Mian Sidi company in the amount of 1.294 billion yuan full discretion. Why is "big and difficult" changing from light to heavy? China Securities Journal interviewed industry analysts and Smith Barney apparel stakeholders found that to some extent, this may be the industry to a certain stage and the expansion of Smith Barney to a certain extent the inevitable choice. Applying the words of Wang Xifeng in "A Dream in Red Mansions" - "a big big difficulty". "The company never said something like 'light assets', which is what the outside world helped us to sum up." Smith Barney costumes board office official said. According to the company, they have all along been adjusting their strategies based on changes in the market environment and their own strengths. Like to open a direct store, the company did so long before the listing, and put it as a fund-raising project for disclosure. Procurement of property to open direct stores, the company is also because of the deep feeling of lack of passive property caused by its own property, it began to do so. (Shanghai) Huaihai Road stores have encountered this situation, the shop opened well, for various reasons, the lease was suddenly forced to discontinue.We do not have our own property, such things will happen often. " At Smith Barney's point of view, the current approach is a natural one, a matter of its own nature, and often "forcing." In the past, they did not know their business model as "light assets." How they would benefit the company's development in the future would be what they would do and would not scorch the so-called 'light asset'. Implicit in the textile industry for 25 years Guotai Junan Securities Research Institute Principal Investigator Li Xian also agree with the company's statement. He said that as the number one casual wear chain in China, continuous improvement of brand value is very important to Smith Barney. And to enhance the brand's grade and status, relying on direct sales flagship store, image shop to enhance. Large store is characterized by large investment in decoration, long operating period, operating by leasing greater risk. To this end, many companies will initially take the purchase of property rights in order to obtain a stable store resources. In addition, the expansion of mid- and high-end new brands (the company launched "Me & City" in the fourth quarter of last year), the improvement of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and the launch of e-commerce have also become the needs of Smith Barney for further development. These all require " Heavy assets "support. From a practical point of view, the domestic clothing brand Septwolves, Goodwill birds have encountered similar problems with Smith Barney, and Smith Barney as the future goal of H & M (Sweden), ZARA (Spain) and other global clothing chain operators, must also Most or all direct sales model. "Light asset" growth model in the presence of powerful business groups, there has been no market. In 2008, "New Fortune" apparel and textile industry best analyst, Wang Wei from China Merchants Securities also reported in the research report that Smith Barney's main business performance growth is constrained by the high cost constraints, the need for a dialectical view. This was mainly caused by the Company's preemption of valuable channel resources at the best time, which will not only hinder the investment opportunities but also the large number of newly opened stores will provide a strong basis for subsequent explosive growth. Investor relations need to be improved Smith Barn lofty, it believes the market prospects, believe in themselves, so I chose the short-term statements ugly, but also to buy property control shop resources, bigger brand. Of course, at this stage, it also has to face investor concerns about the future of Chinese apparel industry, its doubts about the company's potential for growth and its dissatisfaction with the flat performance of the company. With Smith Barney costumes "from light to heavy" gradient, the reporter heard the outside world for the Smith Barney apparel also increased the negative evaluation. Even professional institutional investors have a lot of misunderstandings about the company's purchase of property. A fund manager admitted to the China Securities Journal reporter, he no longer considered Smith Barney clothing is a good investment target. "We bought a few properties after listing, and we think the unit price was not low, but we did not hear any specific explanation." In addition, it is understood that Smith Barney announced this month's Mian Sidi subsidiary plans to buy land, Some institutional investors also voiced different opinions. Allegedly, when it came to seeking advice from institutional investors, the company mentioned a plan of about 1 billion yuan. "One billion is more than just buying land, buying a house, building a house, and making such a big investment in a non-profit workplace, and we do not understand if it is necessary." For a long time, there was a more common concern, "Contact with the company, the feeling that only the big boss (referring to the actual controller Zhou Chengjian) ultimately have the final say.If a company's development more dependent on the entrepreneur, always can not keep the professional manager, we will feel the risk is relatively large, Because no one can guarantee that genius will not make mistakes. "Listed year, for Smith Barney costumes to buy property is" squandering money ", whether the concentration of ownership to form" a word of the Church "and so on, there seems to be a lot of shareholders of tradable shares, but did not get Timely response. With the gradual transformation of the company's business model, equity incentive program has not yet launched, short-term profitability and unsatisfactory, the company's stock market has also been affected. Looking at a listed company, entrepreneurs, management team, strategic investors, shareholders have different perspectives. Perhaps entrepreneurs to look forward 50 years, the management team to look forward 10 years and 20 years, and strategic investors only look at 3 years 5 years, circulation shareholders only see half a year. Different perspectives and attitudes determine different interest demands, how to balance the interests and mentality of all parties, test a company's investor relations management level, and partly determine the image of listed companies in capital markets. In this regard, Smith Barney apparel seems to have the necessary improvements and room. After all, Smith Barney, who used to "light assets," will become more and more inseparable from capital and capital markets on the way to wash away the brand pioneering traces of the asset-light strategy and become a mature capital-driven brand.