Our reporter Li Wenshan, intern reporter Liu Xiaoyi
On May 14th, Miniso Group (NYSE: MNSO, HKEX: 9896) (hereinafter referred to as Miniso) released its financial report for the first quarter of 2024. The financial report shows that the company's total revenue in the first quarter increased by 26% year-on-year to 3.72 billion yuan, breaking a new high in first quarter performance.
On the same evening, Miniso held a performance conference call. Ye Guofu, founder, chairman and CEO of Miniso, and Zhang Jingjing, CFO and Vice President of Miniso attended the meeting.
Ye Guofu told the Securities Daily and other media at the meeting, "Behind the rapid growth of the company's performance, three trends can be seen: first, Chinese companies are going global with broad prospects. Miniso has accumulated a first mover advantage in going global, with over 100 overseas market store networks and expansion experience. It is currently in the stage of brand going global; second, the trend of the times determines that China will give birth to a group of world-class consumer brands, and Miniso's goal is to seize the trend and become a global super brand from China; third, the uncertainty of the global economic environment is increasing, and interest consumption is flourishing."
Ye Guofu stated that in recent years, the behavior of domestic consumers has shown a coexistence of rational consumption and interest consumption, and this trend is common worldwide. IP co branding is a typical representative of interest consumption, with a global IP retail market size of nearly RMB 2 trillion and a highly dispersed competitive landscape. The per capita consumption of IP goods in China is 51 yuan, which is only a quarter of the global average. IP retail has great potential.
Zhang Jingjing, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Miniso, stated that the company's gross profit margin reached 43.4% in the first quarter, due to the sustained strong development momentum in overseas markets and TOP TOY (a trendy toy brand under Miniso). "In the long run, we are confident in steadily increasing our gross profit margin with our core capabilities in IP product development, supply chain integration, and globalization."
Overseas business growth exceeds expectations
According to the financial report, as of March 31, 2024, there were 6630 stores of Miniso Global. In the first quarter, the company added a net 217 new stores, breaking the record for opening stores in the first quarter in history.
Specifically, in the first quarter, Miniso's domestic revenue was 2.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16%, with a net increase of 108 new stores.
Ye Guofu said, "There are several characteristics of opening stores in China in the first quarter: the proportion of new stores in first and second tier cities exceeded 50% this quarter, and there are still a large number of blank commercial districts in first and second tier cities where stores can be opened; the cumulative number of directly operated stores reached 29, compared to only 16 in the same period last year, thanks to the company's continuous exploration of the channel matrix of directly operated large stores over the past year."
Overseas, Ye Guofu stated that the growth of related businesses exceeded the most optimistic expectations before. In the first quarter, Miniso's overseas business revenue exceeded 1.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 53%. Among them, the direct market revenue increased by over 92% year-on-year.
"Summarizing the gains and losses of opening overseas stores last year, we will strengthen our control over the pace of opening overseas stores this year and strive to open more good stores before the peak season of Q4 this year," said Ye Guofu.
The Five Unprecedented IPs in Co branding
In the first quarter, MINISO took the lead in partnering with the "new top tier" Chiikawa (a character from the Japanese manga "Kiikawa" and its derivative works) IP to launch over a hundred products, including plush dolls, daily necessities, and accessories. They also launched Chiikawa x Miniso themed pop-up stores in cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou.
Ye Guofu stated that the collaboration with Chiikawa this time has five "unprecedented" aspects: unprecedented performance, unprecedented speed, unprecedented efficiency, unprecedented courage, and the unprecedented enthusiasm of Chiikawa fans.
Ye Guofu believes that the repeated creation of phenomenon level events by Miniso's IP collaboration is due to the company's strong IP conversion ability. "We are delighted to see that more and more young people are giving suggestions to Miniso on social media platforms such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu, hoping that we can collaborate with more IPs."
From the data, in the first quarter, the sales of Miniso's IP products accounted for 26% of the total revenue. Among them, domestic IP products account for about a quarter, while the proportion of overseas IP has significantly increased to over 40% year-on-year. As of now, Miniso has established partnerships with over 100 globally renowned IPs such as Disney, Sanrio, and Pokemon.