- 来源|Cosmetic Business Online
- 作者|Zhu Cong
Increased revenues do not increase profits.
On the evening of April 25, WINONA's parent company, BOTANEE (300957.SZ), published its 2023 annual report as well as its 2024 quarterly report.
In terms of revenue and profit, BOTANEE realized operating income of 5.522 billion yuan last year, up 10.14% year-on-year, while net profit was 757 million yuan, down 28.02% year-on-year.
According to the currently disclosed financial data of local beauty companies last year, BOTANEE ranked fourth with a revenue of 5.522 billion yuan, and the top three were PROYA 8.9 billion yuan, Shanghai Jahwa 6.598 billion yuan, and BLOOMAGE BIOTECH 6.081 billion yuan, in that order.
Broken down into each quarter's performance, BOTANEE's profit decline last year was largely dragged down by the fourth quarter.
Previous earnings data show that the fourth quarter is the traditional peak season for BOTANEE, which mainly sells online. Coinciding with the double 11, BOTANEE in the fourth quarter to invest a lot of sales costs, but “the company double 11 online channel promotion activities sales are not as expected”, the quarter's main revenue of 2.091 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 1.31%; single-quarter net profit of 110 million yuan of deduction, a year-on-year decline of 78.1%.
The good news is that the first quarter of this year started the reversal, with another small peak after growth had nearly stalled.
In the first quarter of 2024, BOTANEE's revenue was approximately 1.097 billion yuan, an increase of 27.06% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was approximately 177 million yuan, an increase of 11.74% year-on-year, achieving the best Q1 since listing.
01
Main brands account for 90% of the total, actively incubating new brands
Built on the word “efficacy”, BOTANEE relies on a multi-brand matrix to support the 5.5 billion yuan of annual revenue, sub-brand new talent is gaining momentum.
● Intercepted from BOTANEE Annual Report
Data from the annual report showed that the WINONA brand contributed 5.1 billion yuan, accounting for 92% of the total. Although other sub-brands have not yet been able to effectively support the company's revenue, BOTANEE is continuing to improve the matrix layout of efficacious skin care brands.
WINONA Baby taps into efficacious skin care market for infants and children.In 2023, WINONA Baby's revenue grew 47.5%, OTC channel revenue grew 66.1%, and repurchase rate continued to increase on key online platforms.
Beforteen, an AI+ personalized acne treatment brand, started its first year in the market. During the reporting period, the search term “Beforteen” created by the Beforteen brand for “graded acne elimination” has successfully gained more than 280 million exposures, and the official position of the Beforteen brand has accumulated more than 200,000 fans.
The launch of AOXMED completes BOTANEE's ultra-high-end brand line, which generated about $36 million in revenue last year.
BOTANEE supplemented its PURE&MILD and Za mass beauty care brands through a strategic acquisition of Yuejiang Group at the end of 2023, complementing the company's mass-market makeup and cosmetics footprint.
It is worth noting that Beauty Answers, a medical aftercare brand founded in 2012, and Zirun, a dry skin care brand founded in 2017, were not mentioned in the report.
Obviously, a multi-brand strategy helps beauty companies maximize their appeal to consumers in all circles, but it also means a higher degree of difficulty in creating differentiation in segmented brands.
02
New drivers of Group growth emerge
Through internal incubation and external mergers and acquisitions, BOTANEE's business is actually no longer limited to functional skincare products, but is gradually extending into the field of artificial intelligence diagnosis and treatment and medical beauty empowerment platform.
Among them, the performance of AOXMED, a high-end technology brand focusing on anti-aging incubated within BOTANEE, is most expected.
In July 2022, the brand's official website was officially launched, positioning high-end anti-aging, the brand focuses on effectively slowing down the aging process, maintaining and prolonging youthfulness, terminal pricing of more than $1,000, anchoring the population age of 25 years +, such as AOXMED Vitality Cream price of 1,280 yuan/15g, the price is comparable to the Helena Rubinstein Black Bandage Cream 1,380 yuan/15ml.
The company takes offline medical beauty institutions as the main layout channel for brand cultivation at present, and creates a professional beauty and skin care experience through the integration of efficacious skin care and professional beauty programs.
The financial report highlighted that the “AOXMED” brand will deepen the brand positioning of the tandem of medical beauty and home beauty in 2024, upgrading the concept of whole-layer antiaging to the whole antiaging skin rejuvenation management idea, and with the new idea of “combined mechanical and cosmetic” product portfolio, we will create “postoperative medical care” solutions around the core single product of the “Specialized Yeon” series product line. Around the “special Yan” series of product line core single product, to create “photoelectric postoperative 0-28 days postoperative medical care” solutions, and the industry's professional team in-depth cooperation, to explore the value of the operation of the medical aesthetic after-market.
Meiyan line will focus on the pursuit of medical efficacy of quasi-medical groups and daily anti-aging high pursuit of non-medical quality consumer groups, improve the product line and efficacy of positioning, seize the target population mind, accelerate the enhancement of high-end skin care channel market share.
In terms of the company's expenses, the financial report shows that BOTANEE's sales expense ratio is perennially higher than 40%. Annual revenue continues to grow, but due to the group's multi-brand marketing needs, the company's selling expenses are also growing, up to $2.6 billion in 2023, already accounting for nearly half of revenue.
On the R&D side, BOTANEE has always emphasized the cornerstone role of R&D, and has invested more than 100 million yuan in R&D expenses every year, which is at the forefront of the industry, and the R&D expense ratio in 2023 was as high as 6.07%, which is much higher than the average level of the industry.
Last year, BOTANEE invested RMB290 million in R&D expenses, an increase of RMB44,118,900, or about 17.32%, over the same period in previous years, and also added 100+ new R&D staff. The R&D expenses exceeded headline companies PROYA (RMB 174 million) and Shanghai Jahwa (RMB 147 million).
At present, BOTANEE, relying on the resources and advantages of Yunnan Provincial Specialty Plant Extraction Laboratory Platform and BOTANEE Research Institute, is further investing in the construction of Japan, France, the construction of research institutes and cutting-edge joint laboratories, targeted to carry out the basic theory of the specialty plants, innovative raw materials R & D, R & D of raw materials screening, R & D of efficacy of cosmetic R & D, functional food R & D, R & D of medical devices and packaging. The company is investing in the construction of a research institute in Japan and France to build a cutting-edge joint laboratory.