By Zhao Xinhua

Since early August, domestic listed apparel companies have released their reports for the first half of 2021. As of August 27, a total of 27 enterprises disclosed in the report, 25 listed apparel companies achieved growth in operating revenue and net profit in the first half of the year, and 2 companies increased their revenue but did not increase their profits. On the whole, the consumer market has accelerated its recovery this year after experiencing the industry downturn caused by the pandemic last year. Meanwhile, since last year, the online and offline integration of various brands has accelerated, and affected by the “Boycott Xinjiang Cotton”, Chinese consumers’ recognition of domestic brands has been greatly improved. These factors have prompted the apparel industry to accelerate the recovery in the first half of this year.

In the first half of the year, two of the 27 listed apparel companies saw their net profits increase by more than 50 times, 14 companies have doubled their net profit year-on-year.

Compared with the pre-pandemic level of the same period in 2019, the operating revenue and net profit of 9 companies have continued to rise, one enterprise has turned losses into profits, three companies have maintained net profit growth, two companies have maintained operating revenue growth, and the performance of the rest companies have declined compared with the same period in 2019.

Industry insiders believe that due to the severe impact of the pandemic in the first half of 2020, most companies are expected to reap a significant rebound in the first half of 2021. What makes the market more concerned is that as the low base effect of the subsequent industry gradually weakens, these companies with strong endogenous growth and continuous good performance will have better performance. It is expected that the market concentration of the leader companies will be further improved in the future, and the industry differentiation will become more and more obvious.

After a slump last year caused by COVID-19 and other factors, the recovery of the apparel industry began to accelerate in the first half of this year, with a number of listed companies reporting a surge in operating revenue.

Among the 27 listed apparel companies, in the first half of the year, there were 3 listed apparel companies with operating revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan; 1 company with operating revenue exceeding 8 billion yuan; 1 company with operating revenue exceeding 5 billion yuan; 2 companies with operating revenue exceeding 4 billion yuan; 1 company with operating revenue exceeding 3 billion yuan; 8 companies with operating revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan; and the remaining 9 companies with operating revenues less than 1 billion yuan.

In addition, in terms of corporate profit, in the first half of the year, 5 companies with net profit exceeding 1 billion; 1 company with net profit exceeding 600 million yuan; 2 companies with net profit exceeding 400 million yuan; 3 companies with net profit exceeding 200 million yuan; 5 companies with net profit exceeding 100 million yuan; 14 companies with net profits less than 100 million yuan.

Among the listed companies with an revenue of more than 3 billion yuan, except for two fashion companies, the other five are all sports-related listed companies. Similarly, sports companies dominate the top five listed companies in net profit.

Industry insiders said that in recent years, the textile and apparel sector has undergone some gratifying changes. In particular, Chinese footwear and sports brands have made unremitting efforts in product design, technological innovation, and application of new materials, and their market share has continued to increase. Meanwhile, thanks to the resonance between brands and consumers, the upsurge of domestic consumption has been unabated, which has also effectively contributed to the rapid recovery of the apparel industry.

According to incomplete statistics, as of December 30th 2020, the total market value of 91 listed enterprises in China's garment industry in 2020 has reached 428.033 billion yuan. Among them, the total market value of Semir Apparel ranked first, reaching 26.355 billion yuan.

According to the statistics of China Business Industry Research Institute, the top 10 listed 91 enterprises in China's garment industry in 2020 are Semir Apparel, HLA, Peacebird, Jihua Group, Zhongqian Stock, Lancy Stock, St&Sat, Sanfangxiang, Luolai Home and Dazzle Fashion. Among them, there are 8 enterprises with market capitalization of more than 10 billion yuan, which are Semir Apparel, HLA, Peacebird, Jihua Group, Zhongqian Stock, Lancy Stock, St&Sat, Sanfangxiang, the market capitalization is 26.355 billion yuan, 26.09 billion yuan, 14.202 billion yuan, 13.307 billion yuan, 12.898 billion yuan, 12.110 billion yuan, 11.949 billion yuan, 10.789 billion yuan respectively.

In addition, from the perspective of regional distribution, among 91 listed enterprises in China's garment industry in 2020, Zhejiang province has the largest number of enterprises, with a total of 24. Thee second is Guangdong province with 13 enterprises; followed by Jiangsu province and Shanghai enterprises, both 9.