Bosideng warms up, Canada Goose suffers chill

While the ice-cold winter weather has brought subzero temperatures to parts of the world, two winter-coat heavyweights are experiencing markedly different business climates.

Shares of Canada Goose Holdings Inc, the maker of premium parkas, slumped almost 20 percent during the past week on the Nasdaq. During the same period, Hong Kong-listed Chinese down-coat maker Bosideng International Holdings Ltd, surged 14 percent to a five-year high.

Analysts noted that the fluctuation of Canada Goose's stock prices has been impacted by the recent social criticism of the killing of wild animals. Some experts said the apparel company's stocks have been impacted by the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co.

Seeing China's key role in the global luxury market, Canada Goose announced its expansion strategy in China in May this year. Owning an office in Shanghai, it now has an online presence via Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall and operates an offline shop in Hong Kong. A new flagship store will be launched in Beijing this month.

"This was the right time for us to open a headquarters in China," Dani Reiss, chief executive officer of Canada Goose, said recently.

"We've been interacting with Chinese consumers even from the online environment and our global stores. We know we have a high brand awareness here. And the new move will help offer that experience in this country," Reiss added.

Statistics from Alibaba show around 500,000 people visited Canada Goose's online store on Alibaba's Tmall platform during the annual Singles' Day shopping festival on Nov 11. During the annual shopping frenzy, consumers spent more than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in around an hour on Canada Goose's Tmall shop.

For the second quarter ended Sept 30, Canada Goose reported a total revenue growth of 33.7 percent year-on-year to $174 million.

In recent years, Bosideng accelerated its upgrading strategy and has already reaped the rewards. During the first half of this year, the company's revenue increased 16.4 percent to 3.44 billion yuan. It reported that revenue of its branded down apparel business segment jumped by 19.5 percent year-on-year to 1.77 billion yuan.

Xu Haoyu contributed to this story.