Goodbaby International launches distribution platform in Japan

To accommodate its new distribution platform, the parenting products company has formed an indirect non-wholly owned subsidiary.

Through this newly-established subsidiary, it will primarily distribute Cybex and gb-branded baby and child personal care products and related items throughout the Japanese marketplace.

The subsidiary will provide customer services and consumer engagement activities to support the ongoing growth of the Group's Cybex and gb-branded business in Japan.

The Group, through its subsidiaries, obtains 80% shares of the Subsidiary.

Japan: A core market​

"We have been developing Cybex brand in the Japan market for years and recorded very good progress,”​ shared Johannes Schlamminger, CEO of Cybex and gb Brand.

Japan is Goodbaby’s primary focus: “Our intent is to rapidly expand the Cybex and gb branded business by designing, developing, marketing and distributing products specifically for Japanese consumers.”​

"Japan is the second largest and strategic market in Asia. Formation of our own direct distribution platform is a strategic step for the Group to grow its business in Japan market to capture its great potential,”​ Martin Pos, CEO of Goodbaby International, said in support.

Brand awareness​

Focusing on developing its brand and all-round consumer experience, Schlamminger added: “We will also provide the necessary customer services and consumer engagement activities to firmly establish Cybex and gb as leading juvenile brands in Japan."​

Goodbaby currently operates its own omni retail channel in China, through which it sells its nursing and personal care products. This marketing approach includes its own online retail stores plus over 1,000 self-managed offline retail stores.

Annual results​

On 27th March 2018, Goodbaby International Holdings released its 2017 annual results. For the year ending 31st December 2017, the leading parenting products company announced its gross profit margin had improved by 4.7 percentage points to 38.5%. In addition, the operating profit rose by 46.3% to HK$ 312.5 mn (€32.3 mn).

The company focused its transformational change on the development and enhancement of “brand-driven business model, and leveraged its successful transformation into a global leading horizontally and vertically integrated maternity and baby care ecosystem through the acquisition of Oasis Dragon,”​ stated Martin Pos, Chief Executive Officer, Goodbaby International.

"Our positive financial results in 2017 are a direct outcome of our continuous development of our brand-driven strategy. The initiative in integrating operations on a large scale that we carried out in the past three years has now yielded notable results,”​ commented Song Zhenghuan, Chairman, Goodbaby International.

“Leveraging rapid development of our global brand business, significant breakthrough of product offerings and business model, improvement of new retail business in China, enhancement of our flexible supply chain structure, as well as highest standards in innovation and product quality, we are striving to develop our global leading horizontally and vertically integrated MBC ecosystem that can sustain growth in revenue and profit, with an aim of further enhancing the Group's value to strive for sustainable returns of our shareholders,”​ Zhenghuan went on to say.

APAC focus​

Strong full-year growth took place in the Chinese market as the Group’s own retail omnichannel grew at 24.5% which accounted for more than 60% of revenue from China Market. This represented a year-on-year increase of 19.8%.

Despite Happy Dino experiencing a decline after undergoing a restructuring for relaunch in 2018, the gb brand and Cybex brand hit strong growth of 24.0% and 100.8% respectively.

The acquisition of Oasis Dragon led to the integration of all brands and teams in the China marketplace. These transformed into a new retail and sales organisation under one leadership team.

This approach has driven the "'one brand', 'one team' and 'one system' synergy while striving to create a lifestyle brand"​. This brand will feature numerous product lines and will expand the Cybex brand into a retail and wholesale model.

Goodbaby reported the strategic closure of its Geoby brand business in 2016 as the reason for revenue outside China declining by 8.3% to approximately HK$546.3 mn (€56.5 mn).

The Group’s newly-formed non-wholly owned subsidiary with a local distributor in Japan in March 2018 aims to help the business develop its presence in Asia. It has also established a new dedicated team as a platform for all Group brands in Southeast Asia.