(Economic Observation) Last year's overall decline in the performance of apparel companies can "be bright" this year?

　　China News Agency, Beijing, February 14th (Reporter Chen Kangliang) A number of clothing companies in China's A-shares have recently released performance forecasts for 2022.

In the past year, the performance of clothing companies closely related to people's "daily clothing" has generally declined. What risks and opportunities will the industry have in the new year?

　　According to the disclosed performance forecast, in 2022, the performance of A-share clothing companies can be described as an overall decline.

Statistics show that a total of 39 listed companies in the clothing sector have released performance forecasts, of which 23 are loss-making companies.

　　Among them, Souyute, a former leading casual wear company, suffered the largest loss.

The performance forecast shows that in 2022, while Souyute’s operating income is expected to decrease by 79.71% to 78.75% year-on-year, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies is expected to lose 1.9 billion yuan (RMB, the same below) to 2.6 billion yuan.

　　On the basis of a loss of more than 400 million yuan in 2021, Meibang Apparel is expected to lose 720 million to 780 million yuan in 2022.

In addition to these casual apparel companies, some companies that focus on fashion apparel and children's shoes and apparel have also suffered performance losses. Previously, Anel, whose stock price soared due to the "anti-virus concept", expected a loss of 230 million to 270 million yuan last year.

　　There are also some companies, although their performance has not yet suffered a loss, their profit growth rate has fallen sharply, such as the famous "two birds" in the A-share clothing sector.

Among them, Guirenniao is expected to achieve a net profit of 74.7692 million yuan in 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 79.27%.

Taiping bird is expected to achieve a net profit of about 195 million yuan in 2022, a year-on-year decrease of about 71%.

　　Regarding the reasons for the performance changes, most companies said that due to the repeated outbreaks of the new crown epidemic, the company’s operating difficulties have increased, resulting in a decline in sales revenue. The vitality is gradually improving, and it is expected that the market sales will gradually recover.

　　Among the "Weixan" enterprises that have turned losses, Jihua Group expects to realize a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 180 million to 222 million yuan in 2022, which is a turnaround compared with the previous year.

Regarding the main reason for the performance change, Jihua Group explained that the company focused on the main business of the entity, and the orders for military supplies and epidemic prevention and emergency supplies increased significantly year-on-year, and the gross profit increased year-on-year.

　　In the view of Hao Shuai, an analyst at Bank of China Securities, 2022 is a year full of challenges for the clothing sector, and the new crown epidemic throughout the year has repeatedly affected terminal consumption.

Brand apparel companies will increase their overall discounts in 2022, which will also affect their performance.

　　Looking ahead to 2023, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities analyst Wang Liping is optimistic about the apparel sector.

According to Wang Liping's analysis, following the recent terminal sales of domestic clothing brands, the trend of consumption recovery is obvious.

Since January, the sales of brand apparel have continued to improve, the optimization of the inventory structure has been accelerated, and the discount pressure has eased. With the improvement of fundamentals, the industry is expected to usher in a "Davis double-click" market.

　　Wang Feng, an analyst at Shanxi Securities, said that for the clothing sector, the rapid recovery of offline passenger flow since 2023 and the continuous destocking of the industry are conducive to the recovery of clothing consumption this year and the restoration of the profitability of clothing companies.

In the medium and long term, sportswear is still the category with the best growth potential.

Under the background that young consumer groups are more fond of domestic sports brands and domestic sportswear companies are increasing their product research and development efforts, the market share of related sportswear companies is expected to continue to increase.

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