There is no factory, but it can be seen everywhere because of the crazy selling of "OEM". As a A-share listed company, Antarctic E-commerce (2127.SZ) is a mixed existence.

recently, its "Antarctic people" brand products have been named by the market supervision department.

on July 6th, the colored cotton kimono three-piece suit and infant underwear with the trademark "Antarctic Man" were notified by Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Administration that the rope was unqualified, and the trademark was authorized by Antarctic Man (Shanghai) Co., Ltd..

On July 9th, the reporter of Time Weekly called Antarctic E-commerce on issues such as product quality management and brand authorization procedures. The relevant person in charge of the company said that it was not convenient to be interviewed for the time being and would contact the relevant person in charge to reply to the interview questions. As of press time, the reporter has not received a reply.

behind the repeated exposure of quality problems, Antarctic e-commerce has an exceptionally bright performance.

In 219, Antarctic e-commerce realized an operating income of 3.97 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.52%; The company realized a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 1.26 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.6%.

among them, the gross profit margin of brand integrated service business was as high as 93.36%, and the revenue increased by 37.89%. Coupled with the dealer brand authorization business, the OEM business revenue of Antarctic e-commerce reached 1.35 billion yuan.

From the stock price, Antarctic e-commerce has been on the rise for several months. According to Wind data, during the 67 days from April 1 to July 1, the share price of Antarctic e-commerce rose by 16.59%.

The continuous growth of performance and a red-hot share price are in sharp contrast to the branded goods that have repeatedly exposed quality problems. How long can Antarctic e-commerce win a profitable business?

A "money-making business"

"Assuming that the cost of thermal underwear produced by any local factory is 15 yuan, it is difficult to sell 29 yuan online, and you can sell it to 59 yuan with the tag of Antarctic people." On July 1th, a person familiar with the OEM operation in Yiwu told the Times Weekly reporter the truth about the "brand integrated service business" of Antarctic e-commerce.

according to public information, in 28, Antarctic people who started from thermal underwear started the brand authorization business model. This year, Antarctic people cut off all the production lines and sales ends, sold all the factories that have been in operation for more than 1 years, and only kept the brand "Antarctic people".

since then, the brand licensing business of Antarctic people has never stopped, and has gradually evolved into the "Antarctic e-commerce" today.

At present, Antarctic e-commerce does not purchase and sell related products, but collects brand comprehensive service fees and dealer brand authorization fees according to the brand authorization services provided by the company and the industrial chain services, which together are equivalent to 3%-6% of GMV (total turnover).

On July 9th, Ma Gang, an expert in clothing industry, told the reporter of Time Weekly that under this mode, Antarctic e-commerce maintained a light asset model and shared IP with partners to make money. "The company can flexibly and professionally engage in IP development and operation planning".

under the blessing of this model, the GMV of Antarctic e-commerce brands continues to skyrocket.

The data shows that in 219, the GMV of Antarctic e-commerce in various e-commerce channels reached 3.559 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48.92%. Among them, the Antarctic brand GMV was 27.138 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 52.86%.

this is an amazing data. According to the White Paper on the Development of Brand Licensing Industry in China in 22 released in May this year, the annual retail sales of authorized goods in China reached 99.2 billion yuan in 219, up 15.9% year-on-year. In other words, the retail sales of authorized goods of Antarctic e-commerce alone reached 3.8% of the annual retail sales in China.

As a result, the performance of Antarctic e-commerce has risen. In the three years from 217 to 219, the revenue of Antarctic e-commerce was 986 million yuan, 3.353 billion yuan and 3.97 billion yuan, with growth rates of 89.22%, 24.12% and 16.52% respectively.

under this mode, the revenue scale confirmed by Antarctic e-commerce is relatively small, and there is no cost of sales and inventory, so it has a very high gross profit margin.

according to the disclosure, in 218 and 219, the gross profit margin of brand comprehensive service industry of Antarctic e-commerce was 94.11% and 93.36% respectively, and the gross profit margin rate of brand licensing business of dealers was 96.52% and 94.85% respectively.

Hailan House, which also does not have its own factory, has a gross profit margin of only 5.79% in online sales in 219.

Thanks to the strong pull of the gross profit margin of brand licensing business, in 219, the overall gross profit margin of Antarctic e-commerce was as high as 38.5% and the net profit was as high as 1.26 billion.

according to Antarctic e-commerce, in 219, the gross profit of its brand comprehensive service business increased from 847 million yuan in 218 to 1.159 billion yuan, with an increase of 312 million yuan, which was the main contribution point of the company's net profit growth in 219.

On July 11th, Cheng Weixiong, an expert in brand management of textiles and garments and general manager of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., told the reporter of Time Weekly that e-commerce in Antarctica is a "good business" simply from the perspective of making money.

"At the moment when online traffic dominates the business model, Antarctic e-commerce has made the ultimate integration of online resources, and within a few years, it has made an underwear brand into a full-category brand, successfully catering to the needs of the sinking market and gaining great economic benefits." Cheng Weixiong said.

Declining brand value

However, it is widely believed that the business model of Antarctic e-commerce lacks social responsibility.

On July 1th, Lai Yang, president of Beijing Jingshang Circulation Strategy Research Institute, told Time Weekly that under this business model, it is difficult for Antarctic e-commerce to control distributors and suppliers. "It is difficult to monitor quality assurance with a wide range of authorization, and the price system will be chaotic."

According to the annual report of Antarctic e-commerce in 219, during the reporting period, the total number of its cooperative suppliers was 1,113, including about 5 main cooperative suppliers; There are 4,513 cooperative dealers and 5,8 authorized stores.

the quality of its brands has been repeatedly named by the market supervision department.

This year alone, in addition to the above-mentioned children's wear "accident", in June, the nominal trademark "Antarctic Man" 1 kg rice barrel was found to be unqualified by the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Administration. In April, Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision Bureau named the outdoor jackets sold by Arctic Rock outdoor franchise stores as Antarctic people unqualified; In March, the National State Administration for Market Regulation organized a special spot check on the quality of the second batch of online products in 219. Unqualified products included travel bags produced by Antarctic e-commerce.

at present, it's even difficult to determine whether all products labeled as Antarctic people are from suppliers authorized by Antarctic e-commerce.

On July 12th, a person in charge of matchmaking for Antarctic brand authorization told Time Weekly that at present, the authorization control of Antarctic people is very tight, but there are still channels to obtain the authorization of Antarctic people for companies with demands in individual e-commerce platforms. "The licensing fees for clothing and home textiles are the same, with a deposit of 5, yuan and a licensing fee of 11, yuan. The product quality does not need to be checked, but 2, sets of 2 yuan's tags must be taken every month."

According to this person, after becoming a distributor, Antarctic e-commerce can help introduce authorized factories, and the distributor can choose to get the goods from the authorized factories, or choose not to get the goods but just take the "tag".

According to media reports, Antarctic dealers do not need to go through Antarctic to purchase goods from authorized factories. They only need to sign a nominal contract with the authorized factories to buy Antarctic trademarks in the name of the factories, and then go to the wholesale market to purchase goods themselves and hang a tag to sell them.

In Cheng Weixiong's view, this is not a long-term prosperous business model, and the brand value of Antarctic people is decreasing under this model. "Only pay attention to short-term interests, not long-term interests. To some extent, its existence is a squeeze on the industry, and bad money drives out good money."

Plus traffic business

Cheng Weixiong pointed out that under this model, Antarctic e-commerce has benefited in the short term, but the bottleneck has followed. "It is difficult to maintain its rapid expansion today, and its future growth is limited."

The data shows that the growth rate of net profit of Antarctic e-commerce is indeed slowing down in recent years.

In 215, the net interest rate of Antarctic e-commerce increased by 158.37%, but in 219, the figure was only 36.6%. In the first quarter of 22, the net profit of Antarctic e-commerce was 128 million yuan, with a growth rate of only 5.28%.

Antarctic e-commerce will continue to acquire different brands for brand licensing business.

in its annual report in 219, it said that listed companies intend to introduce other brands through acquisition, cooperation and new establishment, so as to better build the brand matrix of listed companies.

"The most essential thing of business operation is the intrinsic value of the brand, which cannot be solved by external business adjustment." Lai Yang said that the business model of Antarctic e-commerce exhausts the real vitality of the brand. In the long run, the influence of well-known brands will eventually "die out", and consumers may not continue to pay for the newly acquired brands of Antarctic e-commerce.

Perhaps the success or failure time of the Antarctic e-commerce model will give a conclusion.

but from the actual operation of Antarctic e-commerce in recent years, it seems that it is also "looking for a way out".

in 217, the acquisition time of Antarctic e-commerce was interconnected, and the popular traffic business was gradually increased.

in the past three years, the mobile internet media delivery platform business through time interconnection has become more and more important in the revenue of Antarctic e-commerce. In the three years from 217 to 219, the proportion was 22.36%, 65.64% and 62.23% respectively.

At this point, Antarctic e-commerce is transforming into an e-commerce service-oriented enterprise. However, compared with the brand integrated service business with a gross profit margin of over 9%, in 219, the gross profit margin of its Internet media delivery platform business was only 7.5%.

At the same time, in 219, time interconnection brought 2.431 billion yuan of operating income to Antarctic e-commerce, but it also brought 2.249 billion yuan of operating costs.

The value of brand licensing business is decreasing, and the traffic business is still not independent. How far can Antarctic e-commerce go without its factory?