Dr. Plant with 4000 Stores Plans to IPO
- Chaileedo Press
- Aug 7, 2023
- 4 min read
In 2020, Dr. Plant opened online sales in Singapore on Amazon.com and Shopee.com. By the end of 2022, Dr. Plant has opened 11 single-brand stores in Japan.
Dr Plant, focusing on single brand retail model, possesses 4600 stores. Recently, it plans to IPO.
On August 4, it is shown on China Securities Regulatory Commission website that Beijing Dr. Plant Cosmetics Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as: Dr. Plant) disclosed counseling filing. It means that Dr. Plant is going to be listed in A-share with CITIC Securities as a counseling agency.
Underlying first share of single-brand-retail beauty stores
Public information shows that Dr. Plant was created by Xie Yong in 1994. In 2004, Xie Yong opened the first skincare franchise. Until 2014, Dr. Plant was officially born.
Before the idea of opening his own stores, brands, as a cosmetic distributor Xie Yong experienced two channels: supermarket and Watson's. In this way, he was very familiar with the offline channels but also well aware of the channel foci. It prompted him to decide to "make" a unique channel.
When Xie Yong was interviewed by CHAILEEDO, he put forward three key words for branding: channel, positioning and R&D. In his opinion, channel is the key to everything. In his view, the channel is the foundation of everything. The single brand retail and service is the cornerstone of Dr. Plant.
It is understood that Dr. Plant focuses on alpine plant skincare and its iconic products are dendrobium orchid fresh muscle condensation time series, alpine black tea series, etc. In 2022, its offline stores have more than 4,600, the number of members more than 20 million.
Channel development has always been the top priority of Dr. Plant. Relying on this concept, Dr. Plant stores are not only located in major cities in China, but also opened overseas. It is understood that in 2018, the Dr. Plant brand pushed its classic product Dendrobium orchid fresh muscle gel time series to Japan. In April 2019, the first Dr. Plant brand store in Japan opened in Osaka, starting the brand's international business. In 2020, Dr. Plant opened online sales in Singapore on Amazon.com and Shopee.com. By the end of 2022, Dr. Plant has opened 11 single-brand stores in Japan.
(Credit: Dr. Plant store in Japan opened in Osaka)
"Whoever opens the international market is an international brand." Xie Yong has publicly stated that after the end of the epidemic, China's national status, national strength, the commercial status of Chinese enterprises and the brand status of domestic brands will be greatly enhanced. Going global is the opportunity faced by this generation and is a must-do thing.
In addition, Dr. Plant deployed online. As of press time, the highest-selling products is the "Camellia Yueze hydrating cleanser", priced at 69 yuan, monthly sales over 20,000 units on its flagship store on Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall. And on TikTok (Chinese version of TikTok) the highest-selling product is the "Alpine White Tea Series Set", priced at 299 yuan showing that 134,000 have been sold.
In fact, beauty single-brand-retail store was first driven by the Korean brand MISSHA, Innisfree, etc. However, time has changed. These brands have long been despondent transformation. But Dr. Plant, Fan Wenhua, VEIBAO, Forest Cabin differentiated positioning to stand in the market as "skincare stores". Among them, Fan Wenhua stores have exceeded 5,000. Forest Cabin, insisting on years of self-management, also opened up the franchise model for further expansion.
However, among A-share listed beauty companies, there is no single brand retail store. Not long ago, MISIFU planed to go list on Beijing Stock Exchange, but soon the company gave up the IPO program. Thus, Dr. Plant is expected to become the "first stock beauty single-brand store".
According to the report filed by Dr. Plant for IPO counseling, the results of its IPO counseling will be available in November 2023, which means that Dr. Plant will usher in a new progress of IPO next year if the progress goes well.
May be a 4-billion-yuan brand
According to the data of China Chain-Store & Franchise Association, the sales of D. Plant have reached 3.878 billion yuan in 2022, which is at the forefront of similar single-brand store brands. This is not only related to its wide channel deployment, but also lies in the combination of digital operation and hero single product strategy.
It is reported that Dr. Plant enjoys 100 IT staff, established a set of visualization of the national marketing data of real-time monitoring. In 2020, it invested the private domain to reach accurate consumers, so as to feed the brand to make the best decision.
The efficacy of the product needs to rely on strong scientific research capabilities. The industry also agrees that the industry has moved from the era of "channel and traffic are the keys" into the era of "scientific research and the brand are king". In other words, brands lacking brand awareness and investing in scientific research can hardly cross the new cycle of the industry. For companies that going IPO, R&D is also a key indicator for assessment.
According to public reports, Dr. Plant teamed up with the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to set up the research and development center of the Dr. Plant Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At the same time, the brand has featured four major R&D bases: the Kunming Botanical Skin Care Research and Development Laboratory, the Asia-Pacific Institute of Dermatological Sciences in Beijing, and the Guangdong Formulation and Clinical Research Team at the Han Fang Skin Care Scientific Research Center in Tokyo, Japan. In addition, the brand has hired Professor Pei Shengji, the founder of Chinese ethnobotany, as the chief scientist.
It is worth noting that the products in stores of Dr. Plant in Japan are produced the Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming Institute of Dr. Plant Japanese herbal skin care science research center joint research and development, with senior researchers from Shiseido, FANCL and other international big-name cosmetic companies. By integrating the innovative scientific research achievements of Japan and China, the center has successfully developed Japanese-made Dr. Plant products made from alpine plants, which are sold to the Japanese market and Hong Kong, China.
Dendrobium orchid Shu lines vibration eye cream of Dr. Plant,, for example, spent 2 years in research and development, launched 1 month sold 100 million yuan. It is understood that in May this year, the upgraded version of Dr. Plant's Dendrobium Orchid Streak Relieving Vibrating Eye Cream came out.
"We have our own channels. We have brand differentiation. Now the most important thing we need to do is research and development." Xie Yong accepted CHAILEEDO exclusive interview has said.
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