Suning Tesco on the edge of the cliff, Zhang Jindong who returned
来源 | 伯虎财经（bohuFN）
Author | Spirit
Zhang Jindong, founder of Suning and chairman of the group, is gradually returning to the stage.
How will Zhang Jindong lead Suning? This will be one of the most important questions for the company to watch next.
01 Suning Tesco, not optimistic these years
"If JD.com's growth rate exceeds that of Suning.com, I will give Suning to you. In 2012, Zhang Jindong said such things to Liu Qiangdong. At that time, in the era of offline home appliance hypermarkets, Suning was a leader in the industry.
It's a pity that with the failure of diversification, investment failures and other factors, Suning Tesco began to decline.
Flush iFinD data shows that Suning Tesco's revenue reached a record high of 269.229 billion yuan in 2019, and has declined year by year since then. Among them, from 2020 to the first three quarters of 2023, they will be 252.296 billion yuan, 138.904 billion yuan, 71.374 billion yuan and 48.657 billion yuan respectively.
According to statistics, since 2014, Suning Tesco has continued to deduct non-net profit losses, with a cumulative loss of more than 80 billion yuan in 9 years.
As of the third quarter of 2023, Suning.com's asset-liability ratio is 90.88%, and the total debt scale is 118.798 billion yuan.
The rupture of the capital chain was the last straw that crushed Suning.com. In 2021, Suning.com's cash flow crisis continued to be transmitted, suppliers could not pay on time, and there was a sharp shortage of goods on the platform. In the second quarter of that year, the scale of the company's inventory fell to the bottom, and Suning Tesco also fell to the name of "no goods".
During the period, a large number of merchants and suppliers publicly asked Suning Tesco for deposits and payments, and relevant reports spread all over the world, and rumors of Suning Tesco's "bankruptcy" and "bankruptcy" also spread rapidly.
Nowadays, on social platforms, there are still some merchants and suppliers who are openly demanding deposits and payments from Suning.com, angrily accusing Suning.com.
On social platforms, the comments about Suning Tesco are on both sides, with criticism, complaining about Suning's poor customer service, and many praising Suning's excellent after-sales service. What is certain is that in recent years, the attention of the outside world to Suning Tesco has been declining year by year. Among them, in 2023, Suning Tesco's Baidu search index will reach the lowest in a decade, and the market presence will be further weakened.
(Screenshot of Baidu index)
02 Zhang Jindong: In 2024, Suning will fight a turnaround
Not long ago, Suning Tesco launched the 2024 annual work deployment meeting, which was presided over by the company's founder Zhang Jindong, chairman Ren Jun and other Suning management. This is also interpreted as Zhang Jindong's return to the "No. 1 position", and Suning people "re-control" Suning Tesco.
In 2021, due to the introduction of external investment, Zhang Jindong stepped down as chairman of Suning Tesco and was replaced by Huang Mingduan from Alibaba. In April last year, Ren Jun, who joined Suning in 1999, succeeded Huang Mingduan as the company's chairman and president. Since then, Zhang Jindong's "activity" in Suning has continued to increase.
On December 26, 2023, Zhang Jindong, as the chairman of Suning, issued an all-staff letter at Suning's 33rd anniversary celebration. With the release of the all-staff letter and the convening of the 2024 annual work deployment meeting, the return of the head has become more clear.
It is understood that at the opening meeting, Suning Tesco's structure and personnel changes were large, not only on this year's senior management appointments were notified and explained, but also replaced some positions.
Zhang Jindong said, "Suning Tesco has fully and thoroughly returned to the track of development led by our Suning people, whether it is a smooth road or a rugged mountain road ahead, we must firmly grasp the fate in our own hands, and the development of Suning Tesco ultimately depends on ourselves." ”
At present, Suning Tesco also has some new development goals. Ren Jun said that the core business goal in 2024 is to fully realize the profitability of the company's operating profit and realize the image transformation of the capital market. In order to achieve scale profitability in the 3C core business of home appliances, all business segments must eliminate losses and turn positive in an all-round way.
Zhang Jindong mentioned that in 2024, Suning Tesco will mainly focus on three major sectors: first, stabilize the offline fundamentals, which is the top priority, second, continue to deepen the development of the sinking market, and third, steadily promote the development of online business.
In 2024, Suning Tesco will lay out more than 3,000 stores in the sinking market, and plans to restart the offline supermarket business in Suning E-Home stores, integrating the five major scenarios of fresh food, beauty and trendy toys, Chinese and foreign famous wines, household daily use, and maternal and child amusement into the operation. Suning E-Home is a direct-operated large store model proposed by Suning Tesco in 2023.
03 Will Suning Tesco get better?
Regarding Suning Tesco's pursuit of "turning over", many industry insiders believe that this matter is not only a test of Suning Tesco's platform collaboration ability and resource integration ability, but also depends on the "face" of peers such as Jingdong Home Appliances, Taobao Tmall, Pinduoduo, etc., and looks at the "attitude" of upstream suppliers such as Haier, Midea, TCL, Hisense, Gree, Fangtai, Boss, Joyoung, etc.
In December 2023, Suning Tesco successively held the 2024 annual strategic conference with Hisense, BSI, and Haier to determine the annual cooperation goal of tens of billions of yuan, and reached a strategic cooperation plan with Changhong Meiling to break 10 billion yuan in three years.
After the beginning of the year, Suning Tesco held 2024 strategic meetings with Beko, Panasonic Ice Washing, and Midea one after another, announcing a number of cooperation plans, with a cooperation scale of tens of billions of yuan.
A number of cooperation has been finalized continuously, which shows that Suning Tesco has maintained a relatively stable cooperative relationship with major brands, which is also conducive to the development of Suning Tesco in the future.
To a certain extent, this also reflects that Suning Tesco's home appliance network built up in the country and the advantages accumulated over the years in the 3C home appliance category are still playing an important role and becoming an important bargaining chip and confidence for Suning Tesco to turn over.
Focusing on the sinking market will also bring some new possibilities to Suning.com.
In the 2022 annual report, Suning Tesco Retail Cloud emphasized the strategy of focusing on the layout of large stores and home appliance and home furnishing integration stores, especially for blank counties and towns and blank business districts.
The strategy of focusing on sinking may have brought some business results. According to the data, in the first three quarters of 2023, Suning Tesco achieved operating income of 48.657 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.39%, and a net loss attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 2.854 billion yuan, with earnings per share of -0.29 yuan, narrowing the loss by 42.64%.
Judging from Suning's operating data in 2023, the overall situation is improving. At the moment, the forward is "turning over", and the back is "delisting". Where will Suning Tesco go, waiting for time to answer.
Resources:
1. Times Finance: Suning people "re-grasp" Suning Tesco
2. Lianshang.com: Zhang Jindong returned to the "No. 1 position", does Suning Tesco still have a chance?
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