① Covos's Q3 net profit fell by more than 90% year-on-year, with the biggest cumulative drop in stock prices of 57% since February's high. Shitou Technology's Q3 recorded a record high in net profit in a single quarter. Since the January low, the cumulative increase in stock prices has been 91%. Is “sweeping the floor” about to be relocated? ② The overall sales volume of the robot sweeper industry has declined year after year, and domestic players are trying to find a second growth curve by deploying other products such as floor scrubbers. Can speeding up overseas open up room for growth?
Financial News Agency, November 5 (Editor Square)The performance questionnaire handed over by the sweeper robot “Shuangxiong” can be called “two heavens of ice and fire.” Covos's Q3 net profit was only 1,961 million yuan, a sharp drop of more than 90% year-on-year and month-on-month, yet Stone Technology recorded a record high in net profit in a single quarter. Both this year's stock price trends seem to foreshadow this. Covos has basically shown a negative trend this year, with the biggest cumulative decline of 57% from the February high so far. However, Shitou Technology's performance was relatively good, with the biggest cumulative increase in stock prices of 91% since January's low.
In the past two years, the overall sales volume of the robot vacuum cleaner industry has declined year after year。 According to data, 2018 to 2020 was a stage of rapid development of sweeping robots, with annual sales volume exceeding 6 million units, and sales volume dropped to 4.414 million units by 2022. Currently, the robot vacuum cleaner market in ChinaIt has already crammed into hundreds of robot vacuum cleaners, and home appliance giants such as Midea Group and Gree Electric have also entered the market one after anotherCompetition in the industry is extremely fierce. According to data from Aowei Cloud Network as of August 25, the top 5 brands in overall sales volume and market share are:Covos (32.6%), Stone Technology (20.1%), Xiaomi (17.1%), Cloud Whale (8.8%), Hunt (8.1%, online only).
▌The performance of the two leading sweeper robots is very divided: Covos's Q3 net profit was only zero in the same period last year, Stone Technology reached a record high in a single quarter, but shareholders cashed out more than 2.1 billion dollars
The three-quarter report for the sweeper robot “Shuangxiong” was freshly released last week. Covos achieved revenue of 3.387 billion yuan in the third quarter, an increase of 2.58% over the previous year, and net profit of 1.61 million yuan.92% year-on-year decrease。 Shitou Technology's revenue for the third quarter was 2,315 billion yuan, up 57.56% year on year; net profit was 621 million yuan.Year-on-year increase of 160.38%.
As can be seen from the chart above, in terms of operating income, Covos is much higher than Stone Technology. However, in terms of net profit attributable to the mother,Covos Q3 was only 1.61 million yuan, a sharp drop of more than 90% year on year and month on month。 Stone Technology received 621 million yuan in Q3.Hit a record high in net profit for a single quarter.
The day after the disclosure of Covos's results, it closed down 1.76%, while Stone Technology surged 8.82%. Judging from this year's stock price performance alone, Covos has basically shown a downward trend.The biggest cumulative decline since February's high is 57%。 However, Stone Technology has performed relatively well,The biggest cumulative increase in stock prices since January's low is 91%。 But if you look at it for a long time,The cumulative biggest declines in stock prices of the two since June 2021 were 83% and 79%, respectively。 The latest total market value of Covos is 25.6 billion yuan.Compared to the peak period, the market capitalization shrunk by more than 100 billion yuanThe latest total market value of Shitou Technology is 40.4 billion yuan.
(Chart source: Choice data)
In order to cope with falling stock prices and enhance investors' confidence in the company,The two companies have successively launched plans to buy back shares and increase their holdings。 Covos announced on November 3 that the controlling shareholder Chancellor Investment plans to increase the company's shares by no less than 100 million yuan. Prior to that, Covos announced on September 7 that it plans to repurchase shares for no less than 100 million yuan and no more than 150 million yuan. Shitou Technology announced on August 31 that the proposed repurchase amount is 51.18 million yuan to 102 million yuan.
Once upon a time, according to media statisticsCovos's market share in 2020 was as high as 80%。 Covos, the “first stock of sweeping robots”, was successfully listed on the main board in 2018. In 2020, the company's stock price began to explode, rising all the way from a low point of around 14 yuan to a high of 250.71 yuan in 2021. The cumulative increase in stock prices was close to 17 times.Investors gave it the title of “sweeper of the earth”。 However, the storm gradually passed, and Covos's many “shortcomings” began to come to light. Market analysis points out that Covos has fallen into a vortex of increasing revenue without increasing profits,It is closely related to its high sales expenses。 From 2019 to 2022, Covos's sales expenses increased from 1,232 billion yuan to 4.623 billion yuan, and the sales expense ratio climbed from 21.58% to 30.18%. In the first three quarters of 2023, Covos's sales expenses were 3.416 billion yuan.The sales expense ratio continued to rise, reaching 32.43%。 In comparison, Shitou Technology's sales expense ratio of 19.69% in the first three quarters was lower.
(Chart source: Covos Three Quarterly Report announcement)
When publicizing to the outside world,Vacuum robot manufacturers have always claimed to be high-tech companiesLabels such as “core technology,” “research and development,” and “robot” have been attached to the body for a long time, but judging from actual R&D investment, this may be difficult to hold on. According to the three-quarter report, in the first three quarters of 2023, Covos's R&D expenses were only 605 million yuan, accounting for 5.74% of total revenue.Approximately one-sixth of sales expenses。 In comparison, Shitou Technology spent less on R&D in the first three quarters, at only 448 million yuan. In addition, industry insiders' analysis points out that the main focus of Covos isProducts such as sweepers and floor scrubbers are small household appliances in terms of functionalityHowever, the price is at the level of major appliances,However, at the demand level, it is not as immediate as that of refrigerators and washing machinesThis is one reason why consumers' enthusiasm for robot vacuum cleaners is gradually cooling down.
Although the former 1,000-yuan bull stock, Shitou Technology, had fair results in the first three quarters,However, many shareholders reduced their holdings。 Shitou Technology announced on August 12 that Shunwei, Xiaomi's “Tianjin Jinmi”, and Dindi reduced their holdings by 3.31%, 1.93%, and 0.25% of their company shares from February 13 to August 12, respectively. The total reduction in holdings was 1,014 billion yuan, 630 million yuan, and 78.7171 million yuan, respectively. Subsequently, Shitou Technology announced on September 16 that Changjing, the company's controlling shareholder and actual controller, reduced its holdings by a total of 1% from March 24 to September 14, for a total reduction of 392 million yuan.The total amount of holdings reduced by the above shareholders is over 2.1 billion yuan.
(Chart source: Shitou Technology Notice)
▌Facing development bottlenecks, sweeping robots, are desperate to find a second growth curve. Can going overseas open up incremental space?
The sales volume of the robot vacuum cleaner market is facing a bottleneck.Industry players are looking for new growth opportunities。 Among them, floor scrubbers that form strong collaboration with sweeping robots have become the consensus for the development of the industry. Currently, both Covos and Stone Technology have deployed floor scrubber products. As early as 2019, Covos launched the Teko brand, but Stone Technology did not officially release the floor scrubber U10 until 2021.The Tianke brand ranks first in the market with an absolute advantageFollowed by brands such as Chase, Victory, Haier, and Midea. Compared to sweeper robots, Shitou Technology is absent from the top 5 floor scrubber brands.
In addition, Covos is also involved in categories such as lawnmower robots and window cleaning robots, while Stone's current product line includes various categories such as sweeper robots and handheld vacuum cleaners/floor scrubbers. It is worth noting that previously, Shitou Technology also launched the integrated molecular sieve washing and drying machine H1.Entering the Red Sea market for washing machines。 According to reports, the product took three years to develop, and the listing price was 5,999 yuan. The industry believes that compared to all-in-one washers and dryers on the market, this product has no advantage in terms of brand or price.
At the same time,Going out to sea to break through has also become a “must-choose action” for Covos and Stone Technology”. Since the second half of 2023, Covos's new sweeping robot products have been simultaneously supplied to China, Europe, Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and will soon be launched in the US. Meanwhile, Shitou Technology is continuing to establish a global distribution network. Currently, it has set up overseas companies in the US, Japan, Germany, South Korea, etc., and opened online brand stores on online platforms such as Amazon and WalMart in the US. Currently,Stone Technology has achieved the top three market shares in 14 countries, including Germany, Australia, and Japan.
Currently,The overseas robot vacuum cleaner market has not developed sufficiently, and there is still a lot of room for growth。 Judging from the penetration rate, according to Euromonitor data, as of the end of 2022, the market penetration rate of sweeping robots in major overseas countries was not high. The US, which had the highest penetration rate, was less than 14%, while Germany, which had the highest penetration rate in Europe, was less than 9%.
In terms of the competitive landscape,The overseas robot vacuum cleaner market is still in a situation where it is much stronger。 Among them, iRobot is the largest, and currently accounts for less than half of the market share, while Chinese brands are also making inroads overseas.The market share of Covos and Stone currently ranks second and third in the global sweeper robot market。 Although there is still a certain gap with iRobot, as their respective market shares expand, Chinese brands such as Covos and Stone are also gradually dominating the minds of some overseas consumers with advantages such as high cost performance.
It is worth mentioning that it is not easy to set up overseas marketsIt often has larger costs and various obstacles, making it difficult to iterate as rapidly as on a large scale as at home. For Chinese sweeper robot players, no matter how they flourish in overseas markets, the domestic market is always their base. Market analysts pointed out that how to achieve high quality cost reduction and efficiency, and how to produce products that satisfy consumers is the fundamental task of the robot vacuum cleaner.