Performance fluctuations prompt a busy transformation, but Xilinmen is robbed by a "home thief" stealing 100 million yuan?

Source | Radar Finance

Text | Zhou Hui

Editor | Meng Shuai

No matter how much you guard, happiness arrives at the door—“home thieves are hard to guard against.”

On March 27, Xilinmen announced that recently, the company’s subsidiary Xitu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xitu Technology”)'s bank account funds were illegally transferred, with a total transfer of 100 million yuan.

Xilinmen pointed out in the announcement that the company has applied for case filing and investigation with the public security authorities. At the same time, to protect company assets, the company also froze three bank accounts of its controlling subsidiary, totaling about 900 million yuan.

It is worth mentioning that Xilinmen, known as the “Number One Mattress Stock in China,” previously crossed into the film and television industry in 2015, but this business ultimately failed to become the company’s second growth driver and was eventually “cut off with pain.”

After divesting from the film and television business and focusing on its core furniture business, Xilinmen’s recent performance has been unstable, especially with significant fluctuations in net profit attributable to shareholders.

From 2021 to 2024, the company’s year-on-year growth rates of net profit attributable to shareholders were 78.29%, -57.49%, 80.54%, and -24.84%, respectively.

In the first three quarters of last year, Xilinmen achieved positive growth in both revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders, but in the third quarter, it faced the awkward situation of “increased revenue but no profit increase.”

Currently, Xilinmen is firmly promoting its strategic transformation from a “traditional furniture manufacturer” to a “technology-based sleep solution provider.”

Some analysts believe that this move aims to seize the opportunity in the sleep economy, but this track has recently attracted more and more players, making Xilinmen’s transformation path full of challenges.

“Home thief” strikes, 100 million yuan “disappears”

On March 27, Xilinmen announced that recently, the company’s subsidiary Xitu Technology’s bank account funds were illegally transferred, with a total of 100 million yuan.

Xilinmen stated in the announcement that after verification, the incident involved personnel suspected of abusing their positions to illegally embezzle company funds. The company had applied for case filing and investigation with the public security authorities on March 26.

Meanwhile, to further prevent financial security risks and safeguard the company’s funds, Xilinmen also proactively froze three bank accounts of its subsidiaries Hangzhou Xiyue Furniture Sales Co., Ltd. and Shaoxing Xinxi Furniture Sales Co., Ltd.

As of the disclosure date, the amount illegally transferred from Xilinmen’s subsidiary bank accounts was 100 million yuan, with about 900 million yuan frozen through judicial protection, totaling approximately 1 billion yuan, accounting for 26.54% of the company’s latest audited net assets and 42.69% of its latest audited monetary funds.

Xilinmen emphasized that the freezing of these bank accounts was a proactive protective measure to safeguard funds and was not subject to third-party freezing.

However, the company also stated that this incident might temporarily impact the short-term normal use of funds by the subsidiaries, but considering the overall cash flow, it would not cause significant adverse effects on the company’s overall production and operations for the time being.

Currently, Xilinmen is fully cooperating with the public security investigation, ensuring the safety of account funds, and will promote the unfreezing of the accounts and the recovery of illegally transferred funds, striving to eliminate adverse effects as soon as possible and to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the company and all shareholders.

In addition, Xilinmen will conduct internal personnel accountability and internal control rectification, strengthen the legal and regulatory awareness of all directors, senior executives, and key personnel, and improve corporate governance and internal control management capabilities. The company will also strengthen the construction and implementation of internal control systems.

However, Xilinmen also admitted in the announcement that, as of now, the recovery of illegally transferred funds still faces some uncertainties. If the funds cannot be recovered, it may adversely affect the company’s net profit.

Meanwhile, the unfreezing of the company’s self-protected bank accounts also has some uncertainty regarding timing, which could temporarily impact the short-term fund use and normal operation of the subsidiaries.

Some analysts pointed out that this incident exposed deficiencies in Xilinmen’s internal control system, with serious loopholes in financial management processes, especially with overly centralized fund management authority in subsidiaries and a lack of effective multi-level approval and checks.

Following the incident, Xilinmen’s stock price fell by 3.56% and 4.96% on March 30 and 31, respectively. On April 1, the stock price slightly rebounded by 1.74%, with a latest market value of 5.6B yuan.

Failed cross-border into film and TV, performance fluctuates in recent years

Apart from the “insider” illegally transferring funds, Xilinmen’s performance has also attracted external attention.

Radar Finance learned that in 2015, Xilinmen crossed into the film and television industry, investing 720 million yuan to acquire Zhejiang Greentown Cultural Media Co., Ltd., which was renamed Shengxi Huashi, attempting to turn it into a new growth point.

However, this cross-border effort did not yield the desired results. Since 2018, the company’s film and television business has been continuously loss-making. Ultimately, in 2020, the company decided to divest from the film and television sector and refocus on furniture.

But after returning to its main business, Xilinmen’s recent performance has been unstable. From 2021 to 2024, the company recorded net profits attributable to shareholders of 559 million yuan, 238 million yuan, 429 million yuan, and 322 million yuan, with growth rates of 78.29%, -57.49%, 80.54%, and -24.84%, respectively.

According to the latest third-quarter report for 2025, in the first three quarters of last year, the company achieved revenue of 6.2B yuan, up 3.68%, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 399 million yuan, up 6.45%, reversing the decline seen in the same period last year.

Although the overall performance in the first three quarters was decent, dissecting quarter by quarter reveals that Xilinmen’s profitability faces short-term pressure.

In the first quarter of 2025, revenue was 1.73 billion yuan, down 1.76% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to shareholders was 71 million yuan, down 4.02%.

In the second quarter, performance improved, with revenue up 4.27% to 2.29 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders up 22.43% to 195 million yuan.

However, the good times did not last. In the third quarter last year, quarterly revenue increased by 7.78% to 2.18B yuan, but net profit attributable to shareholders decreased by 6.1% to 133 million yuan, showing a “revenue increase but no profit increase” trend.

Meanwhile, Xilinmen’s quarterly gross profit margin also declined. According to iFinD data from Tonghuashun, in the third quarter of 2025, the company’s gross profit margin was 35.58%, down 0.91 percentage points from the same period in 2024.

In response, Zheshang Securities’ research report pointed out that this was mainly due to increased promotional activities and the shift to lower-tier product lines, as well as the impact of the phased withdrawal of national subsidies.

It is noteworthy that Xilinmen’s investment in sales and R&D shows a stark contrast.

In 2020, the company’s sales expenses were about 907 million yuan. By 2024, this had risen sharply to 1.87 billion yuan, while R&D expenses in the same year were 162 million yuan, a decrease of 9.83%.

In the first three quarters of 2025, sales expenses increased by 8.57% to 1.31 billion yuan, nearly ten times the R&D expenses of the same period.

Some analysts pointed out that the large gap between sales and R&D investment suggests that the company’s revenue growth relies more on marketing and promotion rather than technological innovation.

Additionally, a high proportion of pledged shares further increases Xilinmen’s financial pressure. As of the announcement on January 8, the company’s controlling shareholder and its concerted parties had pledged 79.02 million shares, accounting for 59.01% of their holdings and 21.46% of the total share capital.

Seizing the sleep economy for transformation, competition intensifies

Tianyancha shows that the actual controller of Xilinmen is Chen Ayu. The company’s founding can be traced back to the 1980s.

At that time, Chen Ayu from Shaoxing, Zhejiang, accidentally came into contact with the Mexican film “Yessenia,” whose exquisite and elegant bedding deeply attracted him.

In 1984, at age 22, Chen Ayu invested 1,000 yuan to start a small mattress workshop. In the early days, Chen focused on product quality, and the company was once a “small transparent” in the industry.

With perseverance, in 1992, Chen Ayu led Xilinmen to participate in national mattress rating activities and was awarded as one of the “Top Ten Brands with the Best Quality.” This helped the company gain fame and sales soared.

In 2012, Xilinmen listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, becoming the “Number One Mattress Stock in China.”

According to the company’s official website, as of now, Xilinmen has set up seven manufacturing bases worldwide, with over 5,200 stores and more than 10,000 employees. Its products and solutions are widely used in homes, hotels, apartments, and various commercial scenarios.

Now, against the backdrop of cyclical global economic fluctuations and deep industry adjustments, Xilinmen has chosen to transform from a “traditional furniture manufacturer” into a “technology-based sleep solution provider.”

In December last year, Xilinmen announced that it planned to change its Chinese name from “Xilinmen Furniture Co., Ltd.” to “Xilinmen Health Sleep Technology Co., Ltd.,” and completed the business registration change in January this year.

In the announcement, Xilinmen revealed that with years of R&D investment in sleep technology, its product categories have expanded from traditional soft furniture to intelligent deep sleep series.

In the first three quarters of 2025, revenue from electric smart home products accounted for over 3%, becoming a new growth driver.

Some analysts believe that in recent years, the domestic sleep economy market has been expanding rapidly. Xilinmen’s move aims to seize this track.

According to the “2024 China Sleep Health Product Innovation and Consumption Insight Report” released by iiMedia Research, the market size of China’s sleep economy has grown from 261.63 billion yuan in 2016 to 495.58 billion yuan in 2023, with an expected market size of 658.68 billion yuan by 2027, making sleep economy a new hot spot.

According to China Securities Journal and Shanghai Securities News, among A-share listed companies, dozens, including Xilinmen, are deploying sleep products across sectors such as home furnishings, pharmaceuticals, and technology, involving traditional sleep-related home products, emerging sleep innovations, and sleep aid medicines and beverages.

Notably, Wang Teng, the former China regional marketing director and Redmi brand general manager who was dismissed by Xiaomi, recently also invested in the sleep economy track.

It is reported that Wang Teng founded Today Rest, mainly developing sleep health-related products, and has completed a seed round of tens of millions of yuan.

After the “home thief” incident, whether Xilinmen can achieve new performance breakthroughs through transformation remains a focus for Radar Finance.