Xtep married seven wolves, and the realistic version of "Inheritors" made its debut

Chief Business Review

2024-06-05 18:20Published on the official account of Shanghai Chief Business Review

On June 1, the Fujian business community ushered in a unique adult fairy tale: Ding Jiamin, the second princess of Xtep Group, and Zhou Liyuan, the son of "Seven Wolves", held a wedding of the century in Xiamen. That night, Ding Jiamin officially announced the good news on his social media platform, with the text "The school uniform is you, and the wedding dress is also you".

Subsequently, the news of "Xtep Little Princess and Seven Wolf Sons Got Married" rushed to the hot search.

The video has attracted widespread attention and heated discussions among netizens, in addition to the two "talented women", but also because this is a typical "wealthy marriage", seven wolves and Xtep formed a "family", two emerging "second generation of enterprises" in the family business of Jinjiang, Fujian, and really staged a web novel plot of a wealthy childhood sweetheart, behind the story of the realistic version of "Prince and Princess", it is a strong combination of two business empires.

The novel shines into reality

According to public information, the bride Ding Jiamin was born in 1997 and is the second daughter of Ding Shuibo, the founder of Xtep. The groom, Zhou Liyuan, was born in 1996 and is the second son of Zhou Shaoxiong, the founder of Seven Wolves. This wedding can be called a real "marriage of wealthy families".

Some netizens left a message asking "When did you and Zhou Liyuan meet", and Ding Jiamin himself replied: "Childhood sweethearts". Ding Jiamin and Zhou Liyuan are not only families, they have known each other since childhood, became classmates in junior high school and fell in love, and decided to get married after ten years of love. They are not only the daughter and young master of a wealthy family, but also each other's first love, from school uniforms to marriage, from a business tycoon to a strong alliance.

Compared with the love of the post-95 generation, people pay more attention to the family behind the two young people.

In 2001, Ding Shuibo established the "Xtep" brand. In 2008, Xtep International was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In the 2023 Hurun Report, Ding Shuibo ranks 861st in the country and fifth in Quanzhou with a wealth of 7.3 billion. And the man's family resume is also very brilliant: Seven Wolves was once one of the overlords of the domestic men's wear industry, and in 2004 it became the first men's wear brand in China to go public. In 2020, founder Zhou Shaoxiong made it to the Hurun Report with a value of 2.3 billion yuan. Seven Wolves will achieve operating income of 3.45 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 270 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 79.3%. Although Seven Wolves is not as large as Xtep, its position and profitability in the menswear industry should not be underestimated.

Ding Shuibo and Ding Jiamin

After the wedding picture of Xtep and the second generation of Seven Wolves was exposed, many netizens sighed, "Rich people eventually become dependents", and some netizens tried their best to adapt the advertising slogans of the two major brands, "Xtep, wolf-like feeling." ”

It is worth mentioning that at the wedding scene with more than 1,000 guests, not only relatives, friends, and business partners of both families, but also He Youjun, the son of the gambling king Sifang, supermodel Xi Mengyao, and He Chaoxin, the second daughter of Sifang, also appeared at the wedding scene to congratulate, which shows that the wealthy families are indeed in the same social circle.

The second generation of the enterprise debuted

Although Zhou Liyuan and Ding Jiamin are young, they have also held important positions in their own companies.

Zhou Liyuan is currently the assistant general manager of Fujian Seven Wolves Industrial Co., Ltd., mainly responsible for the operation and management of Karl Lagerfeld, an international luxury brand invested by Seven Wolves, as well as the formulation and implementation of the overall brand strategy. Karl Lagerfeld is in the spotlight for his namesake with the late designer "Galeries Lafayette", whose Greater China business was acquired by Seven Wolves in 2017.

Zhou Liyuan

It is worth mentioning that the Karl Lagerfeld brand has been questioned by the outside world due to continuous losses for several years, which has dragged down the performance of listed companies. In the third year after Zhou Liyuan took over the brand, Karl Lagerfeld ushered in its first profit - in 2021, the brand's sales revenue was 279 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 107.32%; From a net loss of 22.1799 million yuan in 2020 to a profit of 11.2036 million yuan in 2021. However, the brand's profitability is extremely volatile. After a loss of 18.86 million yuan in 2022, it will make a profit of 372,700 yuan in 2023.

Compared with the groom's low profile, the bride born in 1997 is much more high-profile. As the manager of Xtep's newly developed women's category "Half Sugar Series" in 2021, Ding Jiamin is not only active in various activities of Xtep, but also opens her own personal account on Douyin and Xiaohongshu, focusing on a "daily life of a young lady".

In 2023, Ding Jiamin's scope of responsibility will be expanded from Xtep's women's category "Half Sugar Series" to Xtep's trendy category "X-Gene Series", and is committed to creating trendy and comfortable sports and leisure products that young people like.

In the short video of her personal account, Ding Jiamin will not only post her daily life of wearing her own brand, but also her sweet daily life with Mr. Zhou. Up to now, she has more than 700,000 followers on Douyin and has received more than 5.8 million likes, and nearly 200,000 fans on Xiaohongshu, with more than 1 million likes and favorites.

The semi-saccharide series it is in charge of is more like an internal preneurship. According to Ding Jiamin, she participated in almost every link, from design, fabrics to brand communication, and even personally shot product posters, and invited top star Di Lieba to endorse her. In Xtep's official Taobao flagship store, the sales of the "semi-sugar series" performed well.

Studying abroad, returning to China, entering the corresponding family business to learn business management, constantly trying to accumulate experience internally, and then taking the lead in a certain position, branch, and new brand - to sum up, this is the second generation of Fujian represented by Zhou Liyuan and Ding Jiamin is almost the same growth path.

The Fujian family has been in a group for a long time

In fact, before the marriage of the family's children, as peers in the footwear and apparel industry, Xtep and Seven Wolves had already cooperated in the investment field and jointly funded the establishment of an investment fund.

Tianyancha data shows that the cross-strait youth (Xiamen) Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd., which was established in 2015, has Fujian Seven Wolves Industrial Co., Ltd. and Jinjiang Wanfeng Investment Co., Ltd. among its shareholders, and the actual controller of Jinjiang Wanfeng Company is Ding Mingzhong, vice president of Xtep. The two hold 20% of the shares, and the actual controller of the fund is Wu Rongguang, the founder of Hongxing Erke.

In addition, the two sides have also jointly invested in a number of companies such as Cross-Strait Youth (Xiamen) Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Cross-Strait Youth (Xiamen) Cultural Industry Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership).

The "marriage" between Ding Jiamin and Zhou Liyuan is only the tip of the iceberg in the army of Fujian businessmen's "marriage". Previously, the IPO prospectus of Bama Tea had led to a marriage circle of Fujian tycoons.

Wang Jialin and Wang Jiajia, the two daughters of the Eight Horse Tea Industry, respectively cooperated with Zhou Shiyuan, the son of Seven Wolves, and Colliers Group (01118. HK) actual controller Gao Li married; The father-in-law of Wang Kunheng, the son of Eight Horse Tea Industry, is Ding Shizhong, the founder of Anta Sports. In addition, Ding Lizhi, the daughter of Ding Shui, the founder of Xtep, that is, Ding Jiamin's sister, married Lin Xiaowei, the son of Lin Xiaofa, the founder of Jiumu Group.

The three in-laws of the Eight Horse Family successfully strung together Seven Wolves, Colliers Holdings, and Anta. And the two daughters of the Xtep family connected the seven wolves and the Jiumu bathroom family. This marriage between wealthy families in Quanzhou also became a hot topic on the Internet for a time.

In addition to marriage, mutual platforms are also basic operations.

At the beginning of 2019, Lin Zeheng, the eldest son of Lin Congying, chairman of JOEONE, a leading brand of Chinese business men's wear, got married in Quanzhou. At the wedding ceremony, Ding Shizhong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Anta Group, Zhou Yongwei, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Seven Wolves Group, Ding Shuibo, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Xtep Group, Hong Zhongxin, Chairman of Jinba Menswear, Huang Chaoyang, Chairman of the Board of Directors of China SCE Group, Wang Liangxing, President of Lilang Group, Hong Zhaoshe, Chairman of Qipai, Yang Ziming, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Carbin, and many other founders of well-known local enterprises in Fujian attended the ceremony, and sang a song "Love Fights to Win" on the spot.

Ding Shizhong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ANTA Group, has publicly expressed on many occasions that "Jinjiang businessmen are like a family", and this is not just a sentimental local identity - various brands will jointly purchase from each other, which can have stronger bargaining power and reduce costs. In addition, Fujian businessmen are very active in partnership business and capital lending.

Huddle is the biggest feature of Fujian businessmen: huddle can quickly establish cooperative relations, reduce friction, and can also bring more stable interest relations to rational business. Platform, cooperation, marriage, these are all channels to trust, the purpose is to better "hold together".

The essence of wealthy marriages

On social discussion platforms, the cases of wealthy marriages have always been the focus of public conversation, and today, examples of wealthy marriages are endless:

In 1983, Chui Sai On, one of the three major families in Macau, married Fok Huifen, the niece of the Fok Ying Tung family.

In January 1991, Pansy Ho, the daughter of Macau gambling king Stanley Ho, married Xu Jinheng, the grandson of Hong Kong ship king Xu Aizhou.

In December 2007, Cai Jiamin, the eldest daughter of Hong Kong's "toy king" Cai Zhiming, married Ma Hongming, the son of Ma Jiezhang, chairman of Dacheng Group.

In December 2018, photos of the wedding banquet of Li Jiaying, the daughter of R&F Properties Chairman Li Silian, and Liu Gensen, the eldest son of Liu Zhiqiang, chairman of Heung Kong Group, were leaked, which was called "the strongest marriage in the real estate industry".

In July 2015, Nikki Hilton, the second miss of the Hilton family of the American hotel giant, married James Rothschild, one of the heirs of the Rothschild family, a leader in the British banking industry.

It seems that the relationship is intricate, but in fact, "everything is inseparable". The marriage between these wealthy families not only strengthens the ties between the families, but also opens up more possibilities for the future development of the company. The most fundamental purpose of the major companies to bind interests and use in-laws as a link is to hope to have more trustworthy partners to consolidate the existing industries and maximize benefits.

With the gradual succession of the second generation of the enterprise, marriage has also become a basic operation of "door to door".

The marriage of the second generation of enterprises is conducive to improving the security and stability of the family business to a certain extent. Similar family backgrounds and educational experiences make it easier for both parties to have common topics. In addition, through marriage, the two families are linked together to form a community of destiny, which also has a certain role in promoting the improvement of the enterprise's anti-risk ability and financing ability.

If it is said that in the past, the marriage between giants or the combination of resources is strong, but now on the basis of the high-profile and full of ideas of the second generation, there is another layer of corporate marketing. Of course, the second generation of the post-95 generation has been pushed to the front desk of the enterprise, and it will take some time to carry the banner of enterprise development.

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Personal opinion, for reference only