Current concern: Five years later, Bosiden returned to the UK to open a flagship store, but did not sell down jackets for 10000 yuan?

Ten years after the flagship store of Bosiden landed in London, the capital of the UK, in 2012, this local down jacket brand from China chose to fight the British market again.

"London's Bosden is alive again." "From the door of the largest department store in London, we can see the word" Bosden "." Recently, the highest temperature in London is around 17 degrees Celsius, which is a good time for down jacket sales. In the most prosperous Mayfair district of the city, opposite the old British department store Selfridges, Bosiden flagship store occupies a whole building.

Recently, the store, which has been closed for several years, returned to British consumers after being renovated. This has caused quite a stir on domestic social media. Many Chinese and overseas students who work overseas call them "the light of Chinese goods".

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On the opening day, the Bosiden store, which is six stories high, attracted many customers to queue up, including some domestic and foreign fashion bloggers who came to visit the store. "Yesterday, several Middle Eastern customers came to purchase, and one of them took several pieces." On the social platform, an internship salesperson from London Bosden store introduced excitedly, and she also mentioned that the store was recruiting salespersons and delivery anchors.

The restart of Bosiden's flagship store in London is seen by many as a sign of this local brand's "going to sea" again. On the job search platform indeed, the full-time sales position of Bosiden's flagship store in London requires at least two years of sales experience. The job description also mentions that "Bosiden is focusing on international expansion and comprehensively upgrading its flagship store in London. We hope to expand rapidly in the UK through retail stores and e-commerce."

Without bonus and welfare, the annual salary of the above positions is between 23000 and 26000 pounds. According to Time Finance, this is not a competitive salary, but 30000 pounds can be opened for positions similar to other brands in this street.

Once spent 350 million yuan, Bosden set up a British flagship store

This British flagship store is of great significance to Bosden.

Around 2012, Bosiden's strategy of going to sea was very high profile. According to media reports, Bosiden spent 35 million pounds before and after the purchase, demolition and construction, decoration and other costs of this property located in South Morton Street, London. At that time, it was about 350 million yuan, and Bosiden's net profit was 1.44 billion yuan that year.

In the strategic planning of Bosiden at that time, internationalization, four seasons and multi brand strategy were three pillars. The company once pointed out to the media that the completion of the British flagship store was an important step for the brand to target the European market, and the upper office area of the flagship store was also used as Bosiden's European headquarters.

However, in the early years, the goods sold in the British flagship store of Bosiden were quite different from those in China. The boutique business men's clothing for 25-40 years old middle class men was launched in the store. The production and design were all in Europe, benchmarking the international men's clothing brand Hugo Boss.

After the opening and landing of the British flagship store, Bosiden has also landed in the US and Italian markets in the form of opening flash stores, entering buyers' stores, etc. In order to further consolidate its position in the European market, Bosiden invested 40 million yuan to acquire Hong Kong Tongchang Investment Co., Ltd. in 2013, taking the British menswear brand Greenwoods into account.

But the good times are not long. Bosiden's domestic business has fallen into the dilemma of intensified industry competition and out of focus strategic positioning. From 2013 to 2015, the company faced huge inventory pressure. The number of days of inventory turnover increased from about 132 days to 208 days, and the net profit plummeted from 1.08 billion yuan to 132 million yuan, only one tenth of that in 2012.

The failure of the domestic market has also brought Bosiden's internationalization strategy to the edge. Since 2015, Bosiden has started channel sorting and retail transformation in China. In the British market, Bosiden has also abandoned British designers and manufacturers and replaced them with Chinese teams.

However, the British flagship store of Bosiden still announced its closure in 2017. At that time, the company said that in view of the economic uncertainty after Brexit and the consideration of investment return, Bosiden planned to lease the property at that time, and said that it hoped to enter the British market again.

The retail price is similar to that in China, and there is no down jacket product worth 10000 yuan

What the outside world did not expect was that the British flagship store of Bosiden had been separated for five years.

Time Finance found that Bosiden, which was reopened in London, was very different from five years ago. The store was no longer dominated by men's clothing, and there was little difference between the displayed goods and those on sale in domestic flagship stores. In terms of price, Bosden is more cautious in pricing in the UK than in China.

According to the official website of Bosiden in the UK, a down jacket of the same style of Gu Ailing sells for 209.99 pounds (about 1710 yuan) in the UK, and the retail price in China is 1499 yuan; Another black women's windbreaker down jacket costs 509.99 pounds (about 4154 yuan) in the UK, and the retail price of Tmall in China is 3599 yuan.

However, Time Finance did not find Bosiden's Climbing 2.0 series on the British official website. A product marked "Men's Q Collection Parka" is very similar in design to the peak series sold in China. Its price in the UK is set at 1092 pounds, about 8889 yuan. By contrast, the price of the peak 2.0 series in China is generally more than 10000 yuan.

In 2020, Gao Dekang, the founder of Bosiden brand, said frankly to the media that internationalization is a mission that must be completed, but only by making the Chinese market bigger and better, can the brand go out smoothly.

Now in the Chinese market, Bosiden has obviously passed the most difficult period. Since the strategy of returning to the main brand and focusing on the main channel was determined in 2018, Bosiden has successively cooperated with international designers to launch high-end series products such as trench coats, down jackets and Dengfeng at New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week.

According to the latest annual report issued by the group, as of March 31, 2022, Bosiden Group had annual revenue of 16.21 billion yuan, operating profit of 2.57 billion yuan, gross profit rate of 60.1%, and has been among the 10 billion clothing clubs for four consecutive years. Both in terms of revenue and profit scale, it has far exceeded the level of 2012.

The reopening of the British flagship store seems to be a good time for Bosiden to restart the road of internationalization.

But predictably, this road is not easy. Bosiden's annual report from 2020 to 2022 shows that the group's business income from Europe is shrinking rapidly in the past three years. The company's European business income is 9.23 million yuan, 6.085 million yuan and 2.405 million yuan respectively. In addition, the Group's revenue is all from China.

Tang Xiaotang, an independent analyst in the fashion industry of No Agency, has another view on the restart of Bosiden's London store. He believes that this is more like a marketing that helps local consumers to further understand the high-end brand, with the purpose of improving the brand image. "In the international market, local customers are not necessarily familiar with the Bosiden brand, and they are not competitive compared with other international brands. In the current consumer environment, Chinese brands still need to go overseas by acquiring and acquiring international brands."

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