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21st Century Business Herald reporter Zhu Yiyi reports from Hangzhou

Following the appointment of the new chairman Lin Xiaohai, Shanghai Jahwa (600315.SH) has once again undergone an important personnel change.

Recently, there was news on the social platform that "Kevin Chen, former general manager of Coty China, has taken up the position of general manager of Shanghai Jahwa's beauty business unit", which attracted market attention.

On July 15, a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald confirmed with relevant persons from Shanghai Jahwa that "Chen Min's current position is general manager of the company's beauty business unit", but he also emphasized that "the company's organizational structure is still under adjustment, and it is expected to be completed and implemented in the near future, and there will be more external information at that time."

From public information, we know that Chen Min has served as an executive in many international beauty giants such as L'Oreal and Coty, and has rich experience in the beauty industry.

After graduating from Fudan University in 1998, Chen Min joined the consumer goods industry. In 2012, Chen Min joined L'Oréal China as General Manager of Retail for L'Oréal's Luxury Cosmetics Division, responsible for the retail management, customer relations and formulation and implementation of operational strategies for L'Oréal's high-end brands.

In 2014, Chen Min joined L'Oréal's Active Cosmetics Division (now the Dermatology Beauty Division); in 2016, he was promoted to Vice President of L'Oréal China and General Manager of the Active Cosmetics Division. He is a key figure in promoting the multi-channel business transformation of brands such as SkinCeuticals and La Roche-Posay.

After working at L'Oréal for nearly 10 years, Chen Min joined the American beauty giant Coty Group (NYSE: COTY) in February 2023 as general manager of Coty China, and is also the first Chinese "top leader" of Coty China.

Not long after, Chen Min appeared as the general manager of Coty China at the global launch ceremony of Coty's own high-end skincare brand Lancaster's "Royal Beauty Series" in March 2023 and delivered a keynote speech.

At that time, Chen Min said in an interview that, with consumers becoming more professional and demand for efficacy accelerating, healthy skin care, functional skin care, and high-end products have become the three hot words in the Chinese skin care market. In addition, the medical beauty, light medical beauty, and post-medical beauty repair markets are all areas of major changes that deserve to be seen.

In addition, Chen Min, who has led the digital strategies of many brands, also emphasized the value of digital assets. "Whether from the R&D end or the marketing end, digital programs are important tools for gaining insights into consumers."

However, just four months after taking office, Chen Min suddenly resigned as head of Coty's China business.

At that time, Coty Group’s public statement was, “From July 20, Ms. Chen Liyi, Executive Vice President of Coty Asia Pacific, will temporarily take over as the head of Coty’s China business. Mr. Chen Min, the former general manager of China, resigned after consultation between the two parties. We are very grateful to Mr. Chen Min for his contribution to the development of Coty China in a short period of time.”

Now, Chen Min’s joining Shanghai Jahwa undoubtedly reveals an important signal that the company will further focus on its beauty business and digital transformation.

It can be seen that the 126-year-old daily chemical and beauty giant Shanghai Jahwa is facing the pain of transformation.

After the company's revenue fell 7.06% to 7.106 billion yuan in 2022 and its net profit attributable to shareholders fell 27.29% to 472 million yuan, its revenue in 2023 further fell 7.16% to 6.598 billion yuan, while its net profit attributable to shareholders rose slightly by 5.93% to 500 million yuan.

That is to say, in 2023, Shanghai Jahwa's revenue scale (revenue of 6.598 billion yuan) will be overtaken by PROYA (revenue of 8.905 billion yuan), and it will have to give up the "top spot" of domestic beauty products.

In the following first quarter of 2024, Shanghai Jahwa achieved revenue of 1.905 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.76%, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company of 256 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.18%.

In order to cope with performance pressure and continuously promote strategic transformation, Shanghai Jahwa also adjusted the company's organizational structure.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Shanghai Jahwa established the Beauty and Skin Care and Maternal and Child Business Department, the Personal Care and Household Cleaning Business Department, and the Overseas Business Department, using the business departments as decision-making bodies to accelerate the speed of closed-loop decision-making within the category and the brand's response speed to the market.

Lin Xiaohai, the new chairman of Shanghai Jahwa, also mentioned at the company's shareholders' meeting at the end of June this year, "In the second half of this year, the company will focus on user-end market share and market competitiveness. In the future, the company will continue to deepen the reform of the business unit system. In terms of brand strategy, it will focus on resources and sort out priorities in the short term; in terms of channel strategy, it will continue to carry out multi-platform and multi-channel operations, focusing on breakthroughs in interest e-commerce."