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The sun-protection clothing brand Jiaoxia, endorsed by Jay Chou and Yang Mi, is rumored to be laying off employees.

On August 14, there was news that Jiaoxia had laid off its brand department and merged its marketing department into its sales department. Nanduwan Finance reporters contacted Jiaoxia officials through various channels, but received no response before press time. Reporters noticed that Jiaoxia officials and third-party recruitment platforms showed that the company was still recruiting for positions in the brand development department and public relations department. At present, Jiaoxia officials have not officially responded to the rumors of layoffs.

Known as the "Hermes" of the sunscreen industry, Jiaoxia has become popular with its "good looks + black technology" approach, but it has also been questioned as a "tax on IQ". Having failed in its IPO twice, will Jiaoxia still want to take the title of "China's No. 1 Urban Outdoor Stock"?

Official and third-party recruitment platform of Jiaoxia

Still posting recruitment information for the PR and Brand Departments

According to a report from the self-media Yilan Business on August 14, several company employees confirmed that Jiaoxia has completely laid off its brand department, all employees in the public relations department have resigned, and the marketing department has been merged into the sales department.

Nanduwan Finance reporter contacted Jiaoxia officials through various channels on August 14, but received no response before press time. At present, Jiaoxia officials have not officially responded to the rumors of layoffs.

The reporter noticed that both the official and third-party recruitment platforms of Bananaxia showed that Bananaxia is still recruiting for positions such as brand development and public relations. Among them, the official recruitment platform of Bananaxia showed that this year it released social recruitment information for 16 positions, including product design, clothing development, etc., and only one position was for the brand development department. The recruitment information for this position was issued on July 9, recruiting one person, and the job content is responsible for product detail page planning, completing product copywriting requirements, etc., with a monthly salary of 6,000-8,000 yuan; the third-party recruitment platform showed that Bananaxia still has a demand for the position of public relations expert, which is responsible for media resource development and maintenance, and requires more than 3 years of public relations experience, and the salary is "18k-26k, 13 salaries". However, in the recruitment of the media category, the three positions released by Bananaxia are all Douyin live broadcasters, with a starting salary of 20k.

However, as to whether Jiaoxia’s public relations department belongs to the marketing department, the reporter tried to consult Jiaoxia HR on recruitment matters on a third-party recruitment platform, but received no response before press time.

Recruitment information published by Jiaoxia on official and third-party recruitment platforms

An umbrella supports an IPO

Two failed attempts to go public

Jiaoxia started in 2013, initially selling sun umbrellas, targeting the outdoor product market for young women. Later, its business gradually expanded to sun protection clothing. In March last year, Jiaoxia officially announced Jay Chou as its brand spokesperson, and in March this year, it officially announced Yang Mi as its spokesperson. According to CIC, in terms of total retail sales and online retail sales in 2021, Jiaoxia has become China's largest sun protection clothing brand, with a market share of 5% and 12.9% respectively.

Image source: Jiaoxia official Weibo

Ma Long and Lin Ze, the founders of Jiaoxia, are both science and engineering men. Ma Long graduated from East China University of Science and Technology in 2011 with a major in polymer materials and engineering. He originally studied for a master's degree at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, but later chose to drop out to start a business. Lin Ze graduated from Xidian University in 2007 with a major in detection, guidance and control technology, and graduated from Zhejiang University in 2010 with a master's degree in information and communication engineering. The two co-founded Jiaoxia in 2013. The main company of Jiaoxia is Shenzhen Jianzi Technology Co., Ltd. Tianyancha shows that the company has had three rounds of financing, the most recent of which was in April 2021, and the investor was Fengqiao Capital.

Perhaps due to the founder's science and engineering background, Jiaoxia's products emphasize "technological sense" and high appearance. At one time, Jiaoxia's sun umbrellas were priced at around 200 yuan, while the price of Tiantang umbrellas was only 50 yuan. This also made Jiaoxia, which quickly became popular, questioned as an IQ tax. On April 8, 2022, 9 years after its development, Jiaoxia submitted its prospectus for the first time in Hong Kong stocks. Six months later, the prospectus expired. On October 10 of the same year, it updated its prospectus again, but the prospectus expired again.

The prospectus shows that from 2019 to 2021, Jiaoxia's revenue was 380 million yuan, 790 million yuan and 2.41 billion yuan respectively, with net losses of 23.21 million yuan, 77,000 yuan and 5.47 billion yuan respectively, and adjusted net profits of 19.68 million yuan, 39.41 million yuan and 140 million yuan respectively. In the first half of 2022, Jiaoxia's revenue was 2.211 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 81.4%, and its net profit was 491 million yuan, with an adjusted net profit of 403 million yuan.

Looking closely at the product revenue, in 2019, umbrellas were still the main business of Jiaoxia's revenue, accounting for 86.9%, but by 2021, this figure had dropped to 20.8%. On the contrary, clothing has become Jiaoxia's largest revenue business, with this category accounting for 29.5% of revenue.

The gross profit margins of each of Jiaoxia's businesses are quite high. Taking 2021 as an example, the gross profit margin of hats was as high as 67.3%, the gross profit margin of umbrellas was 59.5%, and the gross profit margin of clothing was 52.1%. The average selling prices of these categories were 93.9 yuan, 103.5 yuan, and 121.5 yuan, respectively. Compared with the previous two years, the average selling prices have increased.

After two failed IPOs, Jiaoxia has not updated its prospectus, so its IPO road seems "far away" to the outside world. Some analysts believe that the difficulty in advancing the IPO process of Jiaoxia may be due to the fact that its marketing-driven business foundation is more fragile than technology-driven. The financial report shows that from 2019 to 2021, Jiaoxia's distribution and sales expenses were 125 million yuan, 323 million yuan and 1.104 billion yuan, respectively. In the first half of 2022, this figure reached 1.333 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 80.4%. In comparison, from 2019 to 2021, Jiaoxia's R&D expenses were 19.854 million yuan, 35.898 million yuan and 71.635 million yuan, respectively, and 63.213 million yuan in the first half of 2022. In the first half of 2022, Jiaoxia's distribution and sales expenses and R&D expenses accounted for 60.3% and 2.8% of total revenue, respectively.

Written by: Nanduwan Financial News reporter Feng Jiaju