New Businesses Such as Sports Merchandise on the Rise
Sales Reach 72.8 Billion KRW... Up 25%
Hyoungji Elite, a corporation with a fiscal year ending in June, announced on the 14th that its operating profit on an individual basis for the second quarter of the 24th fiscal year, corresponding to the second half of last year (July to December), increased about 15 times compared to the same period last year to 1.3 billion KRW. Sales during the same period rose 25% to 72.8 billion KRW.
Hyoungji Elite explained, "The student uniform sector steadily expanded its presence beyond the domestic market to overseas markets, providing stable support for profits," adding, "We interpret that active marketing related to sports commercialization and the workwear business had an impact."
Specifically, the sports commercialization business saw sales increase by 78% due to an increase in contracts with new teams and improved performance of existing partner teams. Last year, Hyoungji Elite signed sponsorship contracts with the Lotte Giants and Hanwha Life eSports (HLE), supporting team uniforms and equipment. They also supply goods to teams such as the Hanwha Eagles and SSG Landers.
Not only professional teams but also the high popularity of the entertainment program JTBC's Choi Kang Baseball fueled goods sales. The pop-up stores operated in collaboration with the production company and others were very successful, and marketing strategies such as gathering popular items from the pop-up events to reintroduce them on the company’s own mall contributed to increasing sales. Additionally, in October last year, they launched the fashion brand "Barca," utilizing the official license of the Spanish professional football club FC Barcelona, and received a good response by selling limited edition products through the platform "KREAM."
In workwear, they are implementing marketing strategies targeting not only business-to-business (B2B) but also business-to-consumer (B2C) by reopening their own mall and reorganizing sales channels.
Hyoungji Elite plans to expand the base of the premium school uniform market in China and increase the development of general school uniform products for large-scale supply to regional education offices. They also plan to expand their entry into the overseas premium school uniform market, including the ASEAN region, to establish a stable growth foundation.
A representative from Hyoungji Elite said, "We will continue to expand our global market presence centered on student uniforms while steadily discovering growth engines in workwear and sports commercialization."
Meanwhile, Hyoungji Elite reported a net loss of 438 million KRW in the second half of last year. The company explained that this was due to the difference between the conversion price of convertible bonds and the stock price, and that there was no actual cash outflow. The pre-tax profit was 2.1 billion KRW.
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