Singapore-based Shein tried to shed its Chinese roots. Now, it has done a U-turn
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In the urban village of Nancun in Guangzhou's Panyu district, buildings like these house an assortment of garment factories on each floor, many of which produce for Shein.
ST PHOTO: JOYCE LIM
SHENZHEN – For years, fast-fashion giant Shein downplayed its Chinese identity. It moved its headquarters to Singapore
But this week, the famously low-profile Mr Xu Yangtian put himself squarely in the spotlight, making a rare public appearance to emphasise the company’s Chinese origins.
“Guangdong is where Shein’s roots are, and is where our striving began,” he said on Feb 24, to an audience of hundreds that included top provincial leaders and rolling cameras that livestreamed his speech.
Speaking at a conference held in Guangzhou by the provincial government, Mr Xu added that the company would invest more than 10 billion yuan (S$1.84 billion) to boost its supply chains in Guangdong and make them more high-tech.
It was Shein’s “core mission”, he said, to serve the high-quality development of the province’s manufacturing industry.
Mr Xu’s appearance drew attention not just because it was highly unusual – but also for the signal it sent.
“This is a dramatic turnabout from recent years, when the company sought to distance itself from its roots in China and position itself as a global company headquartered in Singapore with a multinational supplier base,” said Mr Drew Bernstein, a co-founder of accounting firm Marcum Asia.
Shein has been on a meandering journey to tap global capital markets that has met with frustration at each turn. It has had to contend with, for instance, accusations that it uses forced Uighur labour in its supply chain.
A move of its corporate headquarters to Singapore in 2021, even as it continued to manufacture in China, did not shield Shein from scrutiny while it pursued an initial public offering (IPO) in New York.
As geopolitical tensions festered, Shein’s US listing hit a snag. It turned to London, but faced problems there too. The company would have required the green light not just from the places it sought to list, but also from Beijing, given its large network of suppliers in China.
Shein is now trying to list in Hong Kong
In this context, Mr Xu’s appearance at the Guangzhou conference “seems like an astute way to signal that Shein is aligned with China’s digitalisation and modernisation policies, and will be a good corporate citizen if it can tap Hong Kong’s currently hot IPO market”, said Mr Bernstein.
During his speech, Mr Xu highlighted Shein’s contributions to Guangdong, where its supply chain is headquartered. There, small garment factories which spill across neighbourhoods turn out the cheap blouses and skirts which power the platform and feed bargain-hungry consumers abroad.
Shein works with nearly 10,000 suppliers in Guangzhou and has generated over 600,000 jobs, he said. It will join a cross-border e-commerce pilot over the next three years which would benefit smaller factories, he added.
Mr Xu also paid homage to the local authorities, from provincial leaders to city officials and staff at various government bureaus. Shein’s achievements, he said, were “inseparable” from their guidance and support.
There was no waffling about the company’s identity, a dicey issue which has raised brows in the past.
Two years ago, at a think-tank event in the US, Shein’s executive chairman Donald Tang had said that the firm could be Chinese because of its supply chains and employees; Singaporean given its headquarters; and American by ethos.
Mr Xu in his speech made zero mention of Singapore or the US.
Shein, he said, would “continue to take root in Guangdong”.
