(Original title: Is overseas revenue accounting for more than half, net profit under pressure and Xiaomi cutting stone technology still smooth?)
Financial Associated Press | New Consumer Daily, April 22 (Researcher Liang Youyun),On April 21, Roborock Technology successively released the company’s 2021 financial report and the first quarter of 2022 financial report.
In the first quarter of 2022, Roborock Technology achieved revenue of 1.359 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.3%; net profit attributable to the parent was 342 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.76%; R&D investment was 116 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.9%, and the growth performance was still stable at the beginning of the year.
The annual report shows that in 2021, the company’s cumulative revenue is 5.837 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.84%; the net profit attributable to the parent is 1.402 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.41%.
Although the net profit and growth rate are not as good as before, the return of Roborock Technology‘s revenue growth still releases a positive signal for the market. At the same time, Roborock’s overseas revenue in 2021 will be 3.364 billion yuan, with a growth rate of over 80%, accounting for 57.63% of the total revenue. The overseas market has become the main pillar of the company’s revenue.
As of the close on April 22, Roborock Technology had ended a sideways decline for nearly a month, with a total increase of 12.07% in the past 2 days, closing at 574.48 yuan per share, with a total market value of 38.38 billion yuan.
It is worth noting that after basically withdrawing from the “Xiaomi Ecological Chain” in 2021, Stone Technology has begun a “independent” growth path. However, because it no longer takes advantage of “Xiaomi”, its publicity needs and efforts are large, and the company’s sales expenses. or will hit a new high.
Product sales exceeded 10 million units, but net profit and gross profit were under pressure
With the release of the annual report, Roborock Technology announced that the cumulative sales volume of the company’s sweeping robots has exceeded the 10 million mark, reaching 10.87 million units. The founder and CEO of the company, Chang Jing, said that the stone brand has exceeded 10 million sales in less than 8 years, indicating that the company has become an important force in promoting the development of the global smart cleaning industry.
The annual report data also shows that the cumulative revenue of Stone Technology in 2021 is 5.837 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.84%. In terms of business performance, Roborock Technology will sell a total of 2.82 million sweeping robots in 2021, and the proportion of its own brand sales will increase to 98.80%, driving operating income to 5.767 billion yuan.
At the same time, the company is also actively investing in research and development. In 2021, the total research and development funds will be 441 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 67.74%; a total of 555 research and development personnel, accounting for about 60% of the total number of employees. Wisdom Bud data shows that Stone Technology has applied for more than 960 patents in total, of which patent applications will reach a peak in 2021, and 270 patents have actually been authorized at home and abroad.
In the face of the rise of brands such as track leaders Ecovacs, Xiaomi and rookie Yunjing, and there are many homogeneous products between brands, competition is fierce, and the battle for talents and teams has become the focus.
Therefore, in the new round of employee stock ownership plan, 479 employees, mainly technical and business backbones, can obtain about 248,200 company shares at 50 yuan per share, and the shareholding employees account for more than 50%.
Comparing with the closing price of Stone Technology 574.48 yuan per share on April 22, it can be seen that the incentive price is even lower than 10%. Similar incentive criteria are found in “partnership ownership” schemes for company executives.
This performance standard is not difficult for the rapidly developing smart home track. Even in 2020, which was most seriously affected by the epidemic, Roborock’s annual revenue growth rate was 7.74%. Stone Technology said that this move attracts and retains outstanding talents and fully mobilizes the enthusiasm of the company’s backbone team.
However, behind the rapid growth of Roborock Technology‘s revenue, the company’s net profit and gross profit level continued to be under pressure.
According to the financial report, Roborock Technology’s net profit attributable to its parent in 2021 is 1.402 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.41%. If deducting non-recurring gains and losses, the company’s annual actual net profit fell by 1.47% year-on-year.
In fact, since 2021, Roborock Technology‘s net profit attributable to its parent has declined significantly. Except in the first quarter of 2021, the net profit in 2020 under the epidemic situation increased by 1.5 times year-on-year, and the year-on-year growth rate of the company’s net profit attributable to the parent from the second quarter to the fourth quarter was 0.54%, -17.01% and -17.80% respectively.
At the same time, the financial report shows that in 2021, in addition to handheld cleaning products and accessories, the company’s smart hardware and smart sweepers will experience a year-on-year decrease in gross profit margin. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the gross profit margin of Roborock Technology decreased by 6.7% year-on-year to 44.7%.
In this regard, Stone Technology explained that the increase in costs caused by operating income and the increase in raw material prices will also lead to an increase in operating costs. In 2021, the company will further reduce the proportion of Mijia products, so that the gross profit level in the domestic area will increase year-on-year. At present, the company is improving gross profit margin through category innovation and product iteration.
Say goodbye to the Xiaomi ecological chain, and overseas becomes a new growth engine
When Stone Technology is developing its own brand, the “cutting” with Xiaomi is also being carried out simultaneously.
The latest related transaction announcement shows that the transaction volume between the company and Xiaomi-related companies has dropped to 1.25%, and the amount is only about 73 million yuan. Compared with the heyday in 2016, 100% of the revenue came from Xiaomi’s foundry. At present, the proportion of sales of Stone Technology‘s own brand has increased to 98.8%.
Leaving the stable demand of Xiaomi’s foundry, Roborock Technology has also seen the market prospects of going overseas while developing the domestic market and improving the company’s gross profit margin.
As Stone Technology continues to launch new products on a global scale and no longer borrows the Xiaomi system, there is a lot of demand for publicity and strong efforts, and the company’s sales expenses have reached a new high.
Among the many operating costs, selling expenses have never stopped growing. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Stone Technology’s expenditure alone reached 426 million yuan, which is close to the sum of the annual research and development expenses, a year-on-year increase of 122.68%. In the first quarter of 2022, with the launch of a number of high-end products, the company’s cost of sales expenses was 181 million yuan, an increase of 8.51% year-on-year.
Although the cost is huge, the advantages of overseas markets are not small. Minsheng Securities estimates that the penetration rate of China’s sweeping robots in 2021 is 4.39%, and the domestic market size is about 11 billion yuan, with an expected average annual growth rate of 21.7%. According to Debon research data, the current penetration rate of intelligent sweeping robot products in the US market is 19%, that in Japan is 12%, and that in Europe is 10%.
In order to seize the overseas market, Stone Technology actively goes out. At present, its products have been sold to more than 100 countries and regions around the world, and overseas branches have been established in the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and other countries.
In 2020, Roborock Technology officially started to go overseas, and opened up overseas markets through online Amazon and offline dealer models, and achieved considerable success in revenue.
In 2020, the company’s overseas revenue was 1.868 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 221.33%, accounting for more than 40% of the revenue. According to data from Amazon’s US station, in 2020, Roborock’s GMV will rank second in the sweeper category, second only to iRobot; in Europe, Roborock’s market share will reach 9%.
In 2021, the GMV of all Roborock categories under the “Black Friday” Roborock Technology will increase by 767.2% year-on-year. According to the CITIC Securities Research Report, since 2020, the technological iteration of the sweeping robot industry has been mainly driven by domestic companies. Domestic leading companies represented by Ecovacs and Stone Technology have caught up with the global leader iRobot in terms of product strength.
The latest financial report also shows that Roborock Technology‘s overseas revenue has accounted for 57.63%, and in the future, it will focus on the development of the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia.
In the face of overseas competitors such as iRobot, shark, eufy and other brands, Roborock Technology stated in the financial report that there are many brands of sweepers in the domestic and foreign markets, the homogeneity of products in the low-end market is more serious, and the company’s focus on the mid-to-high-end market is relatively scarce. On Amazon, the price of some high-end products of Roborock Technology has surpassed the flagship models of the overseas leader iRobot, with a price range of $500 to $700 (about 3,000 to 4,500 yuan).
Affected by the continuous impact of the epidemic, the global transportation capacity is tight, containers are stranded in ports, and the transportation cycle is not smooth, which has a negative impact on Roborock’s revenue to a certain extent. However, insiders of Stone Technology are not worried, and said that if the overseas shipping capacity eases, it will have a positive impact on the growth of Stone.