Fast Fashion Brand Esprit Asia Pacific Sales Drop By 6%

Esprit's parent company announced its 2015 / 2016 first half earnings report. Its revenue in the past six months was HK $9 billion 300 million, down from 107 HK $100 million last year.

But profits fell by an astonishing rate of HK $47 million in the same period last year, while in the past six months it lost HK $238 million.

Sales in the Asia Pacific region dropped by 6%, accounting for nearly half of China's share in the Asia Pacific region.

The performance declined by 11.6% (in Renminbi).

Revenue contribution accounted for 47.7%, and Esprit's largest single market increased by 1.5% in Germany (in local currency).

Si Jie blamed the decline in the Asia Pacific region on China's economic slowdown and the depreciation of the renminbi, which weakened consumer confidence.

But this downward trend began at least 5 years ago.

In the 2010 / 2011 fiscal year, Esprit's sales in China increased by 227%, which began to shrink since then.

Esprit publicity map 2013

Esprit was founded in San Francisco by the founder of North Face Douglas Tompkins and her ex-wife Susie Russell in 1968.

In 1980s, it was the favorite of American teenagers.

One of the brands.

It also entered the Chinese market as early as 1992 and was sought after by Chinese young people.

UNIQLO and Zara were 6 years late and 10 years before entering the Chinese market, but they are now becoming young Chinese with Swedish H&M.

Choice.

Esprit has lost its brand vitality and has been abandoned by young people.

They invited Song Hye Kyo to appear in the new line of clothing in 2016.

Over the past two years, Esprit has also taken many reform measures.

They claim to have introduced the Zara mode -- shorten the delivery time from the previous 9~11 months to 3~4 months.

It has been written in the earnings report that "product design, quality and cost performance have been improved, and same store sales have increased by 8% year-on-year (in local currencies for each store)".

But it was actually closed by shops, and Esprit closed 103 stores in the past year.

At the investor conference, Si said that it also benefited from the growth of e-commerce.

Esprit seems to have forgotten to ask himself one of the most important questions: "why do young people not buy it?" if it can not make itself fashionable again in design, it may be useless to do more.

Look at some cool Esprit stores next to several popular fast fashion brands.