Shandong Ruyi Holdings Limited Hongkong Li Bang In The First Half Of The Year Finally Turned Into A Profit.

Hongkong's men's clothing retailer, Li Bang Holdings Limited, has launched a drastic reform and transformation plan since Shandong acquired its majority stake. The new top management team is gradually improving the production and sales links, optimizing the store network and closing the profitable stores.
From last June to June this year, Li Bang has dismissal 450 employees and removed 3 Chinese offices, which are located in Guangzhou, Chengdu and Beijing, and closed about 35 poorly profitable entity stores. At the same time, most of the services of Li Bang are also outsourced.
In terms of products, Li Bang has taken a series of new initiatives, including reducing sales promotion and discounts, enriching product categories, and introducing more leisure series and women's garments. In addition, Li Bang also plans to launch private custom services and series.
In terms of sales channels, Li Bang gradually abandoned the retail distribution network and shifted its focus to wholesale and e-commerce channels. In the first half of 2019, the wholesale channel and authorized business grew by 286%, accounting for nearly 50% of the total sales volume.
At present, Li Bang employs about 1667 employees and operates 232 stores, of which 224 are located in Greater China and the remaining 8 are in Europe. Li Bang's brand Cerruti 1881 has a total of 84 stores; Gieves & Hawkes has 47 stores; Kent & Curwen has 81 stores; D 'URBAN has 20 stores.
In August this year, Li Bang announced its mid 2019 earnings report, which achieved profitability in the first half. Net sales rose 15.6% to HK $1 billion 29 million, and net profit was HK $76 million 600 thousand (a loss of HK $196 million 800 thousand in the same period last year).
In addition, other sources revealed that Cerruti 1881, the French menswear brand of Li bang, will be absent from the Paris Fashion Week held in January 2020.
Since the departure of the brand creative director Jason Basmajian in July last year, the selection of creative director of Cerruti 1881 has not yet been determined, and the clothing series is designed by its Paris studio. Cerruti 1881 said: "like more and more fashion brands, we are evaluating new ways of promoting our works. We will not hold a fashion show in January next year. Once we appoint a new creative director, we will make a decision.
Claire Landrau, who has just been appointed Vice President of global marketing and communications by Cerruti 1881 this year, said: "Cerruti 1881's Paris design studio is working hard to launch new creative product lines, and will expand online channels to achieve multi-channel growth."
In November 2017, Shandong Ruyi bought about 51% stake in Hongkong by 2 billion 215 million Hong Kong dollars.
As of June 30th, the key financial data for the first half of the 2019 financial year were:
Net sales increased 15.6% to HK $1 billion 29 million.
Gross profit is HK $703 million.
Gross profit margin fell 1.3 percentage points to 68.3%
Operating profit was HK $108 million.
Net profit was HK $76 million 600 thousand (a loss of HK $196 million 800 thousand in the same period last year).