【英语财经】香港老牌家族企业利丰面临挑战 Li & Fung: Family ties prove indispensable

Over the past 109 turbulent years of Chinese history, the leaders of Hong Kong sourcing and trading company Li & Fung have had front-row seats for dramatic twists and turns of fortune.

Like many Chinese family-run businesses, the venture has found ways to reinvent itself through war, the rise to power of the Communist party, global recessions and capital market routs.

But, while Asia is at peace and thriving, the company — which helps global retailers such as Walmart and Marks and Spencer source clothing, homewares and other products — is facing the toughest challenge of its modern era.

After 20 years of rapid growth as China emerged as the world’s factory floor, the company came up against what Spencer Fung, chief executive, calls “almost a perfect storm” from 2010 onwards.

“The global financial crisis was the first hit,” says Mr Fung, who is the great-grandson of the company’s co-founder and took the helm of Li & Fung in March last year.

The worldwide demand shock came just as factory wages in China, where Li & Fung procures most of its goods, were rising rapidly and the company was struggling to digest the latest of 100 acquisitions during the previous two decades.

Since then, the dizzying growth of ecommerce and the expansion of low-cost, fast fashion brands such as H&M and Zara has shaken up the traditional sourcing business still further.

“Li & Fung is facing terrific challenges,” says Robert Ross, a professor of sociology at Clark University in Massachusetts, who studies global apparel supply chains. “They realised that being the middleman is no longer the best profit point in the industry. But unfortunately they reached this perception at the lip of the great recession.”

As the world’s biggest sourcing company, Li & Fung was hit hard. Profit has dropped by 21 per cent since 2011 to $539m last year, while turnover has stagnated at about $19bn. Shares in the company which is listed in Hong Kong have lost more than 70 per cent of their value since peaking in 2011, giving the business a market capitalisation of $6.2bn.

But Mr Fung, whose family still owns about 30 per cent of the company, believes that investors will need to show more patience in a venture just midway through a strategic revamp. The company has already spun off its branded goods business, now called Global Brands Group that is listed in Hong Kong with a market capitalisation of about $1.8bn. Li & Fung is continuing to streamline, while expanding into new growth areas such as ecommerce and logistics.

Like other sourcing companies, Li & Fung is increasingly buying goods in markets outside China, such as Vietnam and Bangladesh where factory wages can be 50 per cent lower. Mr Fung says that 70-80 per cent of the company’s durable goods, such as furniture, still come from China, but only 35-40 per cent of its clothing.

At the same time, it is trying to boost its sales into China. While its Asian business is growing, it still only accounts for 12 per cent of sales, compared with 63 per cent in the US and 17 per cent in Europe. Mr Fung insists that the company remains focused on the long term. “Our horizon is 10-20 years,” he says. “We don’t want to do things that are only good for the next quarter, we want to do things that are good for the company.”

在中国历史过去109年的风风雨雨中，香港采购和贸易公司利丰(Li & Fung)的历任掌门始终坐在前排座椅上，近距离见证了命运戏剧化的迂回曲折。

就像中国很多家族企业一样，利丰设法改变自己，经受住了战争、中共上台、一次次全球衰退及资本市场崩盘。

然而，就在亚洲处于和平的繁荣期时，这家帮助沃尔玛(Walmart)和马莎(Marks and Spencer)等全球零售商采购服装、家居及其他产品的公司，却面临着当代以来最艰难的挑战。

随着中国崛起为世界工厂，利丰曾经历了20年的快速增长期。然而，如利丰行政总裁冯裕钧(Spencer Fung)所说，2010年以来，该公司可谓“屋漏偏逢连夜雨”。

“全球金融危机是第一个打击，”冯裕钧称。他是利丰联合创始人冯柏燎的曾孙，去年3月接任利丰掌门人。

就在全世界的需求受到冲击之际，中国内地的工人工资也迅速上涨（利丰从中国内地采购大部分商品），与此同时，最新的一批收购交易，让过去20年完成了100笔收购的利丰有些吃力。

从那时起，电子商务令人眩目的迅速增长、以及H&M和Zara等低成本快速时尚品牌的扩张，进一步冲击了传统的采购业。

“利丰正面临着严峻挑战，”位于马萨诸塞州的克拉克大学(Clark University)的社会学教授罗伯特?罗斯(Robert Ross)称，“他们已经意识到，中间商不再是这个行业最赚钱的环节。但遗憾的是，他们意识到这一点的时候，大规模的萧条已经临近。”罗斯研究全球服装供应链。

作为全球最大的采购公司，利丰遭受重创。去年，利丰的利润下滑至5.39亿美元，较2011年下滑21%，与此同时，营业额停滞在190亿美元左右。自2011年触及最高点以来，（在香港挂牌的）该公司股票价格下跌逾70%，市值仅为62亿美元。

但是，冯裕钧认为，投资者需要对这家正在进行战略调整的公司予以更多的耐心。冯氏家族如今仍然持有利丰30%左右的股份。该公司已经剥离了如今被称为利标品牌有限公司(Global Brands Group)的品牌商品业务，后者如今在香港挂牌，市值约18亿美元。利丰正在继续调整结构，同时向电子商务和物流等新的增长领域扩张。

正如其他采购公司一样，利丰正越来越多地从中国内地以外的市场采购商品，比如工人工资可比内地低50%的越南和孟加拉国。冯裕钧称，该公司70%-80%的耐用品（比如家具）仍然采自中国内地，但采自内地的服装仅占35%-40%。

与此同时，利丰正试图提高在中国内地的销售额。尽管利丰的亚洲业务不断增长，但是亚洲市场仍然仅占其销售额的12%，相比之下美国与欧洲市场所占的比例分别为63%和17%。冯裕钧坚称，该公司仍然将重点放在长远发展上。“我们着眼于10到20年的发展，”他称，“我们不想做只对下个季度有利的事，我们希望做对公司长远发展有利的事。”

译者/马柯斯