The Winners And Losers Of The Garment And Retail Industry In 2015

The right product mix at the right price point and against the successful position of the counterfeiters, online

Sales helped to get rid of some retailers in 2015, especially under the heavy pressure of filing for bankruptcy and bad inventory management.

Winner: Amazon

With rumors that Amazon.com will soon make its own branded garments, analysts at Financial Services Company, Cowen in the US, predicted in July that gross commodity prices would be calculated before 2017.

The giant will become the largest clothing retailer in the United States.

Cowen estimates that Amazon's clothing performance in the United States will grow from $16 billion 340 million in 2015 to $52 billion in 2020.

According to the recommendations of the US Bureau of labor statistics, Amazon clothing sales are proving a destructive force. Online retailers have committed to 2.2% decline in clothing prices in the United States for the 6 months ended October 2015.

Primark

At the same time, Ireland's senior

Retailer Primark once again showed how to hit the British consumer's sweet spot at the right price point by providing the right product mix, which grew 13% in the current fiscal year compared with the same period last year.

The retailer now has a 14.3% share of the British clothing and accessories market, and is the third largest garment retailer in the UK and currently holds 5.1% of its value.

The group opened its first store in Boston in September and plans to open another 10 cities in the northeast of the United States by the end of 2016.

L Brands

According to US retailer L Brands Inc., professional retail stores and intriguing store experience increased customer reflow rate in 2015.

The company owns

The brand Victorias Secret and La Senza increased their annual performance expectations in the third quarter earnings growth of 25%.

In the 3 months ended October 31st, compared to the 131 million 800 thousand US dollars in the same period (2014), net income reached US $164 million.

Sales increased from 2 billion 320 million dollars last year to 2 billion 480 million dollars this year, up 7%, and same store year-on-year sales grew 7%.

Karen Millen

Another strong company is Karen Millen, which has eradicated counterfeit products from e-commerce sales channels, and has achieved great success by using multi pronged activities to fight counterfeiters.

The British retailer, in cooperation with e-commerce sites such as eBay, Amazon, Taobao and Alibaba, successfully stopped selling more than $3 million 950 thousand worth of counterfeit garments, according to the company, which launched a three year campaign in 2012.

The company claims that this activity is not only aimed at factories and retailers that produce fake products, but also encourages consumers to secretly send information about counterfeit goods, so that the sale of 23000 counterfeit products online is suspended.

House of Fraser

Finally, the British Department Store Group House of Fraser acquired the Limited by Share Ltd of Nanjing Xinjiekou department store in Shanghai in 2014, continuing the sales record of last year and having another bumper harvest year.

In the six months ended August 1st, its sales grew by 6.5% over the same period of the year, while e-commerce sales grew by 30.8%, accounting for 17.5% of total sales.

The total turnover increased to 574 million 200 thousand pounds (about 872 million US dollars).

The retailer continued to expand its international expansion plan. In June this year, it opened second international franchised stores in Abu Dhabi, United Kingdom of Arabia, and plans to open its first retail outlet in mainland China in 2016.

Losers: Quiksilver

Huntington Beach struggled to maintain its (2015) operation in the United States. Quiksilver, the US surfer apparel company, applied for eleventh chapter bankruptcy protection for its US subsidiary in September (2015), and plans to close its 27 US stores.

Last June, Quiksilver made a financial report, indicating that the net loss has narrowed to $37 million 600 thousand from last year's $53 million 100 thousand, while sales fell by 16.1% to $333 million 50 thousand, and gross margins fell from 48.9% to 47.1%.

According to the company, business in Europe and Asia Pacific is still strong and has not been applied for protection.

The company's final financing plan was approved in October 2015.

American Apparel

American Apparel, another poor retailer in 2015, filed for bankruptcy protection in October of 2015.

The company is expected to drop by 19% to $126 million 100 thousand in the 3 months by the end of September last year.

Paula Schneider was the executive director of the company in January.

Since the dismissal of Dov Charney, a controversial company's founder and former executive director, he has been involved in litigation with former companies since then.

Target Corporation

Target, a US discount retailer, closed its last 3 stores in April of the same year when it announced that it had stopped operating in Canada in January. (2015)

Analysts attacked Target's ill fated move into the Canadian market, pointing to poor location and poor inventory management, because some retailers made serious mistakes.

Poor sales failed to maintain the operating cost of 133 cities. When the operation ended, it was estimated that 17600 Canadian employees were unemployed.

Abercrombie & Fitch

Despite its active efforts to turn losses into profits, Abercrombie&Fitch, a high-end apparel retailer in the US, has been striving to improve its operational effectiveness.

The net loss has reached $23 million 700 thousand in the same period in 2014, and the net loss increased to 63 million 200 thousand US dollars in the 3 months as of May 2nd (May 2nd), while sales fell 13.7% from $822 million 400 thousand to $709 million 400 thousand.

Retailers are encouraged to take measures in the right direction to improve efficiency, core design and production processes, and make decisions more quickly to speed up the supply chain product listing, but there is still room for considerable improvement.

Gap Inc

Gap, a US based retail giant, is also struggling to reverse its operations. The company has cut its full year earnings forecast in the third quarter of net profit decline.

According to the company, relative to (2014) in the same period of 351 million dollars, as of October 31st (2015) 13 weeks, net income of 248 million U.S. dollars.

Efforts to increase demand for trends failed to impress performance and sales, and Banana Republic declined significantly by 12%. Although Old Navy brand posted 4% growth, online sales also increased slightly.

Stefan Larsson, President of Old Navy, abruptly left as executive director of Ralph Lauren, prompting analysts to ask retailers whether they can continue to work hard to reverse their performance.