Metersbonwe, once a poster child of China’s domestic apparel boom, is sliding deeper into the red despite a high-profile return by its founder. The company on January 30 issued a profit warning for 2025, forecasting a net loss of Rmb230–300 million and adjusted losses in the same range, with earnings per share between -Rmb0.12 and -Rmb0.09. The trajectory across the year shows accelerating deterioration: small profits in the first two quarters gave way to a Rmb78.9 million third-quarter loss and an implied fourth-quarter shortfall of more than Rmb160 million.
The company blames aggressive discounting to clear legacy inventory, larger impairment charges taken for prudence, and the absence of one-off gains from property disposals that buoyed the prior year. Those explanations point to familiar problems—excess stock, margin erosion and poor cash conversion—yet they also expose deeper strategic weaknesses. Efforts to revive the brand have leaned toward headline-grabbing marketing rather than structural fixes: founder Zhou Chengjian staged a live-streamed dance in September that attracted over 200,000 viewers but failed to translate into meaningful sales or brand rejuvenation among younger shoppers.
Shareholder interventions underscore the company’s cash fragility. On January 7 controlling shareholder Huafu Investment agreed to sell 197 million shares at Rmb1.76 each to Taizhou Xinmeng for Rmb347 million, pledging proceeds primarily to shore up Huafu’s own liquidity and to support the listed group. This follows a November 2023 sale of 150 million shares at Rmb1.62 apiece to a private fund. In little more than two years the controlling shareholder has monetised nearly Rmb600 million of holdings to prop up the business—an unmistakable signal that operating cash flow cannot fund transformation unaided.
The decline has been dramatic and protracted. Metersbonwe’s golden year was 2011, when revenue peaked at Rmb9.945 billion, net profit topped Rmb1.206 billion and the chain operated roughly 5,220 stores. A 2016 leadership crisis precipitated a long slide: after founder Zhou stepped aside amid an investigation linked to an unrelated case, Hu Jiajia assumed the helm and presided over seven years in which the group posted cumulative attributable losses approaching Rmb3.2 billion. Revenue dwindled to Rmb1.356 billion by 2023 and the company’s market capitalisation has contracted from about Rmb40 billion at its peak to roughly Rmb4.7 billion today.
These figures reflect more than one company’s misfortunes; they map onto structural changes in China’s apparel market. Mid‑market mall brands have been squeezed by digitally native competitors, fast-fashion imports and shifts in youth tastes toward niche, personality-driven labels. Large bricks‑and‑mortar footprints that once conferred scale now generate fixed costs that become painful when same-store traffic falls. Clearing inventory with steep discounts trades short‑term cash for long‑term brand dilution, and impairment charges only formalise losses that lazy merchandising and mismatched product strategies have already inflicted.
What works for Metersbonwe is clear in principle but hard in practice: sharper product curation aimed at younger cohorts, a credible digital commerce ecosystem that converts traffic into repeat customers, and ruthless cost rationalisation of store networks. Execution will require fresh capital, discipline and credible management beyond episodic celebrity stunts. The controlling shareholder’s share disposals have bought time but not solved the underlying demand problem; continued reliance on capital injections risks diluting investor confidence and invites governance scrutiny.
In the near term Metersbonwe faces difficult choices. It can seek to overhaul its assortment and pricing, accelerate store closures and inventory markdowns to cleanse the balance sheet, or pursue a strategic partnership or sale to gain marketing and digital capabilities. Each path carries trade-offs: accelerated restructuring would be painful and visible in the numbers, while a partnership might require conceding control or margin. Without decisive action, the company risks further erosion of franchise value; with the right plan and adequate financing there is a narrow route back to relevance, but it will demand more than viral livestream moments.