(Picture from Visual China)
Wen | Yang Qiao of the weekly "Finance and Economics"
Edited | Sun Yue
Recently, Yi Nian (Shanghai) Fashion Trading Co., Ltd., a company registered in China by the Korean Yilian Group, was fined 14,000 yuan for shoddy charging, which made the brand, which has been in the domestic market for more than 20 years, once again attract the attention of consumers.
Netizens in the spit of its brand harvest IQ tax at the same time, mentioned the love of clothes, but there is no longer the past "I am expensive" atmosphere, but "in the past when I always bought in high school", "love is simply my youth", "when I saw people wear through in college" and other remarks, love is no longer the love of consumers' hearts, replaced by other new fashion brands.
On February 10, although Yi Lian explained the reason for the punishment and apologized, its image in the minds of consumers was greatly reduced.
The cost is 75 yuan and the list price is 1500 yuan
On February 8, tianyancha released information showing that the Beijing Xicheng District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau imposed an administrative penalty on Yinian (Shanghai) Fashion Trading Co., Ltd. at the end of last month because the product quality did not meet its stated implementation standards.
YiLian entrusted Dandong Xiangteng Garment Co., Ltd. to produce 80 down jacket products for it, with a production cost of 75 yuan / piece, and the list price of clothes in the counter was 1598 yuan / piece, and the brand premium exceeded 20 times.
The Beijing Xicheng District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau believes that the above-mentioned products are adulterated, adulterated, falsely filled with true, shoddy or passed off as qualified products with unqualified products, and they were punished with 14382 yuan and confiscated illegal gains of 1322.45 yuan.
In fact, the brand products of Yinian Shanghai Company have been punished many times for quality problems. At the beginning of 2021, a women's wool coat of the company's brand SPAO did not contain wool, which was a false or misleading commercial propaganda, and the Shanghai Market Supervision and Administration Bureau imposed a fine of 200,000 yuan on it. According to the statistics of Tianyancha, The cumulative amount of fines imposed by Yinian Shanghai Company in the past two years is 246,000 yuan.
Industry lawyers handling economic disputes told Caijing Tianxia Weekly that he had been exposed to economic dispute cases involving down jacket-related products, and the cost of down jacket products was indeed not high. However, from the perspective of price, there is no deception in the brand, because down jacket products do not belong to the scope of implementing government guidance prices, but if there is a problem with product quality, there is consumer fraud.
After the matter continued to ferment, on February 10, Yi Lian issued an apology announcement on its WeChat public account, explaining that the reason for the punishment was that the style of a certain product was punished because the cost of ingredients did not meet the product standards indicated on the product, and said that "the incident made consumers mistakenly believe that the processing cost of the ELAND brand is the total cost of the goods."
(The picture is from Eland WeChat public account)
Yinian (Shanghai) Fashion Trading Co., Ltd. is part of Yilian Group. Yilian Group is a Korean clothing brand, founded in 1980. Up to now, its fashion, retail, catering, hotels and other industries, its clothing brands include more than 40 brands such as YiLian and Xiaoxiong, covering men's wear, women's wear, children's wear and sports brands, sports brand New Balance is also its brand, Yilian Group in 2011 obtained the new Balance (China) operating agency rights.
The apparel business collapsed
In 1994, Yilian Group entered the Chinese market and established Yilian Fashion (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Until 1996, the main brand Yilian, which is positioned in the middle and high-end and takes the British academy style, opened its first store in Shanghai, and its products quickly opened up the market in China and were loved by many consumers.
In the following ten years, Yilian Group has continuously introduced its own brands into the Chinese market with the frequency of introducing 1 to 2 brands a year, including more than 15 brands under SCOFIELD women's wear, Yilian children's wear, SCOFIELD men's wear, children's wear CELDEN and so on. According to media reports, in 2015, the sales of the Little Bear brand in China reached 2.68 billion yuan, and the profit exceeded 540 million yuan.
Its official website also shows that China is an important part of Yilian Group's globalization strategy, with more than 7,000 stores in large and medium-sized cities across the country. In 2015, China Yilian paid 815 million yuan in taxes alone, becoming the only apparel company among the top 100 taxpayers in Shanghai.
2016 is a special node for Yilian Group, before 2016, Yilian Group continued to acquire brands; after 2016, Yilian Group's offensive in China came to a screeching halt, while constantly selling brands for a living.
In 2016, local mid-to-high-end women's wear brand Vignace (renamed Jinhong Fashion Group in 2017) acquired the Bear brand held by Yilian Fashion Hong Kong Limited for 5.7 billion yuan, including the brand-related assets and other businesses. At that time, this was also regarded as a sign of the downhill trend of yilian group in the industry.
Since 2017, SPAO, another fast fashion brand owned by Yilian Group, has fallen into a wave of store closures, including stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and other regions. Some insiders believe that the brand has not fully opened the market in China, the reputation is not as good as ZARA, Uniqlo and other brands, poor product strength, and no difference in customer perception value are the reasons for its development loneliness.
In March 2019, Yilian Group decided to sell 20%-30% of its shares in Yuxu Fashion (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., including 6 brands such as "Eland Baby"; in May of the same year, Xtep acquired 6 brands of Yilian Group for US$260 million, including E-Land Footwear USA, K-Swiss, Palladium, Supra, PLDM, KR3W and other brands.
Yilian Group has not only encountered the defeat of Korean clothing in the Chinese market, but also began to decline in its own country. In the era of online shopping, Yilian Group has also continuously encountered changes in the aesthetics of Chinese people and changes in consumer behavior.
In the first half of 2020, Yilian Group has closed a number of stores in Daegu, South Korea, Incheon and other places. In order to raise funds, Yilian Group sold its 20 stores and parking lots for 10 years. The group also said that it will consolidate the operation of core stores, close loss-making stores, and re-plan the company's development with the network as the center.
Catering and tourism business is also not satisfactory
In addition to the clothing business, since 2010, China Yilian has also introduced retail, catering, tourism and other business units.
In 2015, Yilian Group acquired the operating rights of Coffee Bean in China and entered the Chinese coffee market; in November 2016, Yilian Group's Korean buffet restaurant Natural Begu opened in Shanghai's Pudong Superbrand Plaza, according to Yilian's plan, to expand the natural Beigu Korean buffet to more than 200 stores by 2020. Including Yilian, brands such as ASHLEY Western Buffet, Teenie Weenie Theme Coffee, and American Fragrant Coffee have been introduced to China. But at present, few of the above brands appear.
According to the Tianyancha APP, the 6 subsidiaries of Yilian (Shanghai) Catering Management Co., Ltd., which was established by Yilian Group, were also concentrated in the two years from 2018 to 2019. At present, there is also a Guilin Yilian Hotel Co., Ltd. in operation.
In addition, in 2011, China Yilian established the Tourism Division, and Yilian (Shanghai) International Travel Service Co., Ltd. was established immediately. In 2016, Yilian and Wanda Group signed an agreement to establish a joint venture tourism company in the form of cooperative venture capital (VC), and the two sides are planning to jointly lay out their tourism business in Korea.
But the South Korean fashion giant, which has been developing for nearly 40 years, has been unable to keep up with the footsteps of young people. Under the ebb tide of the Korean Wave, it is still unknown whether Yilian can open up another world by relying on other businesses.
This article is originally produced by AI Finance and Economics, an account of Caijing Tianxia Weekly, without permission, please do not reprint it on any channel or platform. Violators will be prosecuted.