Outdoor Equipment Revenue Slows, Pathfinder Can Explore Breakout?

Recently, Pathfinder business incubator platform was formally established.

This time, the Pathfinder group plans to provide 200 million yuan of funds for the outdoor, tourism and sports three major industries pioneering projects, and provides Explorer group resources support and professional incubation services.

Cheng Hao, senior vice president of the Pathfinder group and President of the travel business group, said that at present, the scale of the travel income of the company is relatively large, but its gross profit margin is still low. It is estimated that the proportion of travel profits in the three years or so will account for 30%~40% of the total profit. The business incubator can also increase the matching and interaction of the upstream and downstream resources of the company.

The first negative growth of the company's net profit since its listing in 2015 seems to indicate that after the slowdown in the traditional outdoor equipment revenue growth, the company is making an integrated platform for outdoor travel.

The pain of the experience began to appear.

Slowdown

As early as 2009, the Pathfinder of the gem was listed. At the beginning of the listing, its main business is the company specializing in outdoor products R & D design, organization outsourcing production and sales, and the "Pathfinder" brand with independent intellectual property rights.

The main products of the company are outdoor clothing, outdoor shoes and outdoor equipment.

After the listing, the Pathfinder's operating income and net profit have increased significantly.

In 2014, the growth of the company's revenue and net profit began to slow.

In the first quarter of 2014, the company's operating income increased by 16.03% compared with the same period last year. The net profit attributable to the common shareholders of the company grew by 31.53% over the same period last year. In the first half of 2014, the above two data were 21.10% and 26.93% respectively, while in the three quarter of 2014, the above two data were 21.04% and 25.95% respectively.

The 2014 annual report released by the Pathfinder showed that the company's operating income increased (adjusted) to 18.67% after the current period, while the net profit attributable to the common shareholders of the listed company (adjusted) grew to 18.28% year-on-year.

In 2014, the revenue of the company's products was mainly divided into outdoor clothing, outdoor shoes, outdoor equipment and outdoor services. The four businesses' current income was 1 billion 429 million yuan, 374 million yuan, 139 million yuan, and 6 million yuan (internal counterpart 236 million yuan).

A market source said, from the above data, we can see that the company's revenue and the growth of net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of listed companies are slowing down.

In response, the company said in its 2014 annual report that the growth of the outdoor industry slowed down due to the slowdown in domestic macro-economic growth and the terminal consumption environment. At the same time, the Pathfinder brand further optimized the offline channels and strengthened the elimination and upgrading of the inefficient shops under the line, which resulted in a slightly lower number of new stores in the whole year.

Transformation pains

Before the company's performance growth slowed down, in 2013, Pathfinder drove companies through investment, mergers and acquisitions, resource integration, and many other ways.

Transformation and pformation will enable companies to pform from a single outdoor product provider to a "goods + service" outdoor travel integrated service provider, to meet the needs of consumers' all-around outdoor travel service, to enhance consumers' stickiness to the products and services of the company, and to bring more profit growth points, so as to resist the risks brought by the slowdown in the industry and the intensification of competition.

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In the same year, the company created its own brand new e-commerce ACANU (that is, arkennos, focused on outdoor cycling and other fields) online operation, and international brand Discovery Expedition (focusing on self driving, cross-country and other outdoor leisure areas) also began online trial marketing. The company has made strategic investments in new Asiatravel company and green field network, with a view to achieving resource integration in the related fields of outdoor industry, and creating an outdoor travel integrated service platform based on the green field network.

As for the reasons for the strategic pformation, Zhang Cheng, vice president of the Pathfinder and Secretary of the board of directors, told reporters that the company predicted that the outdoor products would eventually become a competitive price simply by relying on traditional sales of outdoor clothing and equipment instead of relying on travel to outdoor environment to produce outdoor products. This is not optimistic for the company, so the company needs to make strategic pformation and start traveling.

In 2015, the company further deepened and expanded the strategy on the basis of above, and constructed the Pathfinder ecosystem with three major parts: outdoor products, travel services and big sports.

To this end, in January 28, 2015, the company announced the establishment of the Pathfinder and the sports industry acquisition fund (the first phase raised to 1.1 billion yuan), the fund will focus on investment in sports vertical media and mass sports events related businesses.

In March 18, 2015, the company announced that after the acquisition of equity and capital increase, Yi You gained 74.56% of the world's equity. Among them, Yi You World International Travel Service (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yi You world") pferred the shares of 61.84% together, and the total pfer price was RMB 131 million yuan.

For the acquisition, Pathfinder said that Yi you world is a O2O integrated service provider located on the tour, which is based on the travel service portal.

The integrated travel service platform will become the integrator of the explorer's overall travel sector business, and form a synergy with the outdoor travel business units such as the company's green field, extreme beauty and Asiatravel, so as to further consolidate the construction and layout of the company's travel business.

Yi Hao, general manager of the world, is the president of the tourism business group of the Pathfinder, and co ordinate the development of the company's travel service sector business.

It is worth noting that the net profit of the Pathfinder has declined in 2015.

The 2015 annual performance Bulletin released by the company shows that the current operating income of the company was 3 billion 759 million yuan, a significant increase of 119.20% over the same period last year, while the company's net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 265 million yuan in the same period, down -10.03% from the same period last year.

Pathfinder said that during the reporting period, the company effectively promoted the construction of the outdoor ecological circle of the Pathfinder, and the strategic layout for the coordinated development of the three major business groups, namely outdoor products, travel services and big sports, was initially completed. Among them, the main factors affecting the operating performance of the reporting period were two outdoor business and travel service sectors.

In the reporting period, the total business income of the outdoor goods sector reached 1 billion 806 million yuan, operating income grew steadily over the same period last year, and the growth rate was about 5.71%. The net profit attributable to the parent company was 290 million yuan, which was about 2.64% lower than that of the same period last year, mainly due to the further increase of market competition pressure, and the decrease of gross domestic product level of outdoor goods sector compared with the same period last year.

Besides the 2014 year's Greenfield network which has been incorporated into the scope of the company's merger, the travel service sector has completed strategic investment in extreme beauty and easy to travel world (the two companies were included in the company's consolidated statements in April and 7 months respectively). The reporting period, the travel service sector's operating income is 1 billion 954 million yuan, accounting for 52% of the company's overall revenue.

Because of the rapid development period of the business, such as easy to travel the world, green field and extreme beauty, it shows a loss in terms of profit, which has an effect of about -2000 million yuan on the company's consolidated net profit during the reporting period.

A market person said, from the above data, we can see that the revenue of the travel service section of the Pathfinder has exceeded that of the traditional outdoor products, but because this business is still in the rapid development period and has not yet realized its profit, it is also a bit of pain in the pformation.

Cheng Hao, senior vice president of the Pathfinder group and President of tourism group, pointed out that the company's travel service market is mainly for the green field system (line + equipment services) and easy travel system (Tourism Product R & D and service revenue), which is in the nurturing stage, belongs to the outdoor customer traffic entry, and the gross profit margin is relatively low. In the future, it can reduce the purchasing cost through its own research and development products, at the same time enhance the service capability and increase the profit, and the green field system can also enhance the profit by reducing the channel cost. It is estimated that the travel profit will be the ratio of the total profit 30%~40% in three years or so, and the business incubation platform can also increase the matching and interaction of the upstream and downstream resources of the company.

"The strategy of the company is to promote the development and popularization of healthy lifestyle through providing the extreme service of outdoor activities and experiential travel. Outdoor equipment is to provide support for meeting the safety needs of the participants in the above outdoor activities and travel activities, and sports is the traffic entrance of the former two."

Zhang Cheng further pointed out to reporters that when the company established the location of outdoor service providers, how to make the consumers with the same values fully interact with each other and maintain and develop the activity of members objectively needs the form of social organization. Therefore, the company set up the heart of community ecological innovation, aiming at exploring and promoting the development of social organizations, and reconstructing the way of communication and interaction with consumers.