Gymshark's annual revenue hit a record $5 billion
If lululemon, Onon-running and Hoka have already occupied the topic of sports brand upstarts, Gymshark is called "the dark horse among the upstarts."
Recently, the British sports and fitness clothing brand Gymshark announced the latest financial results, the company's fiscal year 2023 revenue increased by 15% to 556.2 million pounds (over 5 billion yuan), a record high.
Although there is still a gap between alo yoga and Onon-running, the new brands with revenue of more than 7 billion yuan in 2022, Gymshark's revenue has reached an "all-time high", according to Ben Francis, the company's founder of 93 years, and it has ambitious plans for global expansion in 2024.
Among them, the US market increased by 9.7% year-on-year to 250.4 million pounds, which is the brand's largest market. UK regional revenue increased 25.6% to £111.7 million, while European regional revenue increased 16.1% to £129.4 million.
In other words, even after experiencing weak global consumer demand at the beginning of the year, and even the shadow of Gymshark's small-scale layoffs, Gymshark's 2023 growth is still strong. The demand for sports and fitness clothing in the European and American markets continues to grow, which is also consistent with the growth trend of lululemon and alo yoga.
As a result, Gymshark has even bucked the market with new global growth plans. For example, it announced its expansion into the high-end market, and launched a high-end sportswear collection Everwear in partnership with high-end British department store Selfridges. There are also plans to open Gymshark pop-up stores in Manhattan and Dubai in the spring. In 2023, Gymshark opened its first flagship store in the heart of London and sales exceeded expectations.
Gymshark's 23-year opening expectations are modest. The company's annual average number of employees decreased from 918 to 853. In January 2023, the company cut its North American team from about 125 to 40 people and closed its regional procurement offices in Hong Kong, China and Mauritius.
Gymshark was founded by 19-year-old Ben Francis in 2012 while at university in the UK. Gymshark started with two fitness tracking apps, one of which generated £8,000 in revenue. In terms of product selection, Ben chose health supplements, but soon after, due to the low profit margin, he decided to change his career to the clothing industry, so Gymshark was born in 2012.
In 2020, the company will complete $300 million in financing and enter the fast track of company development. Even after the outbreak, Gymshark's revenue has been growing steadily. Until the layoff crisis of '23, Gymshark was on a roll.
However, the company's low open high 2023, or still tell the sneaker wear market: the growth of global sportswear is still worth looking forward to.
For lululemon, revenue in the third quarter of 2023 increased 19% year-on-year to $2.2 billion, of which the Chinese market operating revenue rose 53% year-on-year, and even rose 61% in the second quarter. alo yoga's revenue exceeded $1 billion as early as 2022, and in the latest round of financing at the end of 2023, the valuation of this yoga brand upstart reached $10 billion.
Therefore, Gymshark vigorously develops the field of women's body-fitting clothing, launches high-end series, and opens stores in the core business circle to pursue lululemon and alo in the field of high-end fitness yoga clothing. But compared with alo, the North American network red who wears out of the street, and lululemon, which competes with Nike, Gymshark has received far less attention.
Gymshark, with revenue of 5 billion yuan, will pursue lululemon after the "2024 largest expansion year" plan issued by its founder in 1993.
The pursuit goes beyond Gymshaark. Recently, Nike continued to launch the Nike Zenvy free series, to force the field of yoga wear. Recently, NIKE WOMEN held the "Start to Pleasure" opening experience event in Shanghai to strengthen its core products in the women's segment. Adidas, on the other hand, is rapidly driving the growth of the women's fitness category through co-funding and a global network of coaching communities.
Sports brands such as VUORI, which is supported by capital, also cut from fitness yoga clothing and are opening global expansion with strong ambitions.
What's more, lingerie brand Victoria's Secret forces the women's sports category, both inside and outside and H&M have launched sports sub-brands, underwear brands are also optimistic about the women's sports yoga wear market.
But even so, the current sports yoga wear is still an incremental market. According to Future Market Insights, the global fitness wear market value in 2022 is 210.8 billion US dollars, and may reach 384.8 billion US dollars by 2032, of which international yoga wear brands, including lululemon, still occupy the majority of female sports yoga wear consumption.
Gymshark's practice of cutting into the British niche fitness and bodybuilding clothing obviously found a place to survive from the giant. Early on, the founders were almost entirely on their own through a promotional network of Instagram fitness bloggers. GymShark entered the 12th year, and Onon-running and other brands were founded in the same time, but quickly entered the giant ignored the market.
Gymshark, like lululemon, grew up in a small market, but made a big opportunity in a small category. Gymshark, with annual revenue of more than 5 billion yuan, is pursuing lululemon, a brand with a similar development path.
In the sportswear market in 2024, competition will continue to escalate. Only in the beginning of the year, Nike's new yoga wear series, lululemon launched a shoe series, and Adidas aims to revive the influence of this European brand through the Paris Olympic Games, and even through the continuous acquisition of Anta Group, are struggling to launch an impact on the global head sports brand.
