福布斯亚洲封面人物文章《车建新：从木匠到中国家居业第一人》

近日，红星美凯龙董事长车建新接受福布斯专访，并登上10月期封面。以下是文章全文：

Che Jianxing: From Carpentry to the First Name in Chinese Furniture

车建新-从木匠到中国家居业第一人

Born in a laboring family in pre-reform Changzhou, east of Nanjing, Che Jianxing took up carpentry instead of completing high school. As China was changing in the 1980s, that skill allowed him and others in his collective to take 500 pieces of furniture into a store that made him a small fortune–nearly $80,000.

车建新先生出生在改革开放前常州的一个普通农民家庭，未完成学业就开始了他的木匠生涯。中国在八十年代改革开放时，木匠这一职业使得车建新及其伙伴为一间商店承包了500件家具，他也因此赚到了“第一桶金”，将近8万美元。

It was the first step to being, at age 48, the “home-improvement” king of urbanized, affluent<?xml:namespace prefix="st1">China. Che’s Red Star Macalline–the last word was conjured to suggest gilded comfort–is the country’s largest mall chain for furnishings, accounting for more than a third of sales at the country’s larger furniture stores. In top-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, Che’s malls are hulking structures, out of proportion to their dense environments. They cater to customers wanting room to look, feel and buy for keeps. Red Star at midyear operated 163 of them in more than 120 cities acrossChina; Red Star has 51 itself and manages the rest for other parties.

车建新于四十八岁之际成为了中国的“家装之王”。其红星美凯龙——“美凯龙”表示很高的舒适度——是中国最大的家具连锁商场，占全国大型家具商场销售的三分之一以上。在北京和上海等一线城市，红星美凯龙占地巨大，与这些城市的高密度的建筑环境形成强烈对比。这些商场成功迎合顾客所想所需，让顾客感到自己买的是“鉴赏品”、“收藏品”。截止今年年中，红星美凯龙拥有163座商场，分布在中国的120多个城市；其中51座商场为自营、其余为委管。

“Furniture stores are usually small and messy, and you never see anything like Red Star,” says Hao Xiubao, general manager of Datong Haoda Real Estate, who does business with Che in centralChina’s Shanxi Province. By thinking big, and this year capitalizing on his ambitions with an initial stock offering, Che emerges as No. 56 on the latest China Rich List, with a $2.9 billion estimated worth.

与红星美凯龙有业务往来的山西省大同豪达总经理郝修宝表示，“以往的家装商场都是小而乱的，从来没见过红星美凯龙这种规模的商场。”红星美凯龙今年登陆资本市场、在香港成功上市后，车建新以约29亿美元的资产，在福布斯中国富豪榜上跃升至第56位。

For all the reports ofChina’s slowdown, what’s happening in the world’s great emerging economy is as much a shift to various forms of consumption as a middle class steadily fills out. The cooling of real estate speculation, which means more buyers are actually living in their new properties, is additionally bullish for a mall chain like Red Star. First-half profit this year rose 31% year-over-year to $188 million, on revenue that increased by 17% to $674 million.China’s furniture market should still grow 10% annually. they will mostly be owned by others. Avoiding real estate ownership risk, he will just manage them.

虽然近期中国经济有放缓迹象，但这个世界上最大的新兴经济体更多的是处于中产阶级稳步出现的阶段，他们产生了各种形式的消费。房地产市场投机气氛降温意味着更多真正自住用家的出现，这个群体对家装用品产生刚性需求，而这对经营家装商场的红星美凯龙极为有利。红星美凯龙今年上半年利润同比上涨31%至1.88亿美元；营收增长了17 %至6.74亿美元。中国家装市场预计仍会按年增长10%。红星美凯龙的商场就估计多为委管商场，这是基于委管的经营模式能有效避免经营风险。

That’s the cautious side of him, sharing and spreading risk just as Che did when, in 1996, he opted to bring other sellers into the store that had grown out of the original collective enterprise. That strategy has evolved into primarily housing other furnishing retailers, or operating such properties–Red Star today does not peddle its own stuff.

这就是车建新谨慎的一面：分散风险，就像他在1996年时做的一样，他选择将其他卖家带入店里，这个店之后亦脱离了原有的集体企业。这项策略演变成为其他家具零售商提供经营场地，或经营类似的物业——红星美凯龙现在并没有自己的生产线。

And when expansion nonetheless began to push up Che’s modest debt-to-equity ratio in recent years, from a bit over 20% to near 30%, the big Hong Kong IPO took it back to 21.6%.

然而，近几年的业务扩张推高了车建新债务股权比，该比率由20%左右升至近30%，在香港的上市后降到21.6%。

Brick-and-mortar survivor: the early generation of the Red Star Mall.

“There is no one that’s going to match their brand anytime in the near future,” says Hu Weidong, chairman of Scihome, a furniture maker that operates 300 shops–focusing on a variety of products–in some 130 of Red Star’s malls. Monthly sales promotions help bring in shoppers.

“在不久的将来，人们对品牌的需求将是多元化的。”斯可馨主席胡卫东说道。斯可馨为一家家具制造商，经营300家店铺，其新品开发能力很强，其产品在130家红星美凯龙商场里销售。他们也常常通过月度促销来吸引消费者购买。

At an interview at company headquarters in Shanghai, Che was eager to talk about the results from China’s long National Day holiday in October: Sales were up 15%, and nearly 2 million people visited Red Star stores during the holiday–better than three times the visits to the Imperial Palace in Beijing, one of China’s top tourist attractions. He enthuses, “Our malls were an ocean of people!”

在公司总部所在地上海的一次访谈中，车建新饶有兴致地谈论到十一长假带来的硕果：销售量上涨15%，近200万人在长假里到访红星美凯龙的商场——为参观中国顶级旅游热点故宫的游客的三倍。他强调：“我们的商场里人山人海！”

To keep them coming, Che is still fanning out acrossChina. When he does, he’s looking for a growing part of town and a locally connected partner like Derun Real Estate in populous Henan Province’s capital of Zhengzhou. The city’s population is expanding by thousands a month. Derun and Red Star have a new project in the booming southern side of town close to a new airport. Local governments sell land expecting that Red Star will attract other, more run-of-the-mill commerce.

为了吸引更多顾客光临，车建新在整个中国发动攻势。他所寻找的是正在扩张的城市和在本地有影响力的合作伙伴，比如在人口稠密的河南省省会郑州市，其伙伴为德润地产。该城市的人口每月数以万计地扩张。德润和红星在该市南部靠近新机场的地方建设了一个新项目，该地区正蓬勃发展中。当地政府将该地卖出他们，希望利用红星美凯龙的影响力能够吸引到其他商家入驻，从而带动该地区的商业。

Brick-and-mortar survivor: today’s version of the Red Star mall.

China’s furniture business is dominated by local companies, because the cost for overseas furniture is high and the marketing has strong domestic flavor. Whereas Ikea, which has 18 stores inChina, has focused on the lower-cost, do-it-yourself market, Che aims at the higher end. Selling remains selling, however, and Red Star over the years has used celebrities to get traffic to its emporiums. This year it has two new ones: Angelababy, a 26-year-old actress from the 2015 FORBESCHINAcelebrity list, and Gao Yuanyuan, an older spokeswoman for Olay cosmetics who attracts more established patrons.

中国的家具是中国公司的天下，因为海外商家家具的成本太高，因此中国内地的消费者更喜欢国内品牌。宜家家居在中国拥有18间店铺，注重的是低成本、自己动手的家具市场，而红星美凯龙则瞄准更高端的市场。红星美凯龙近几年里运用明星名人为商场带来了客流。今年有两个新的代言人：Angelababy和高圆圆，Angelababy今年26岁，位列2015年福布斯中国名人榜；高圆圆曾经是玉兰油的代言人。

Che’s focus on quality fare, worth one’s time to examine, cuts his vulnerability to the Web upheaval that has sunk so many brick-and-mortar companies asChinaleads the world in Internet and mobile phone users. Red Star is working on an online-to-office strategy, but it’s clearly a work in progress. Che doesn’t believe the Web will have a big impact on his furniture trade for several years.

车建新对质量严格把关，部分抵销了互联网对红星美凯龙的冲击。在互联网和移动端的发展上，中国引先世界，互联网已经击垮了许多实体店。红星正在实施在线上和线下融合的策略，现在效果还不明显。车建新并不认为互联网在近几年内会对其家具零售业产生巨大影响。

Meantime, the weakening in Chinese asset prices, even in the consumer sectors, may yield opportunities for further consolidation of showrooms under Red Star’s one roof. “We’re always looking,” says vice president of finance Sharon Tong. “There will be a lot of headwinds” for mall developers inChinaas GDP growth slows, says Carlby Xie, head ofChinaresearch at real estate brokerage Colliers. Red Star “isn’t a traditional shopping mall” and so doesn’t fit into that box.

与此同时，中国资产价格走低，即使是在消费行业，实体店也可能进一步整合。面对该情况，红星美凯龙副总裁唐正茂表示会一如以往保持关注大环境。高力国际的中国地产行业研究部主管Carlby Xie指出，中国的GDP放缓定会成为很多实体店发展的阻力，不过红星美凯龙的经营模式有别于一般传统的实体店，所以未必会对红星美凯龙产生影响。

As Che the youthful carpenter must have known, the hammer should fit the nail.

作为一个年经的木匠，车建新知道：不同的钉子要用不同的锤子。