Sports brand Anta: Uneasy

"The operation of a 6 billion company is totally different from a billion company." Ding Shizhong said.

The founder of Anta, who was almost insensible, led the “Jinjiang Department Boss” to the road of upgrading and transformation. He was trying hard to grasp the balance between reform, breakthrough and enterprise stability.

In late August, when Ding Shizhong walked into the office wearing a "Fei Le" T-shirt - 6 days ago ANTA Sports [10.04 0.50%] Supplies Co., Ltd. (02020.HK, hereinafter referred to as Anta) has just released the "Fei Le" China With the announcement of the district’s agency rights acquisition, Ding is in the midst of being proud of this Italian high-end sports fashion brand. However, our photographer asked him to put on the "Anta" card created by himself. The average price of such clothing is less than one-fourth that of “Ferre”, but it is currently the sports brand with the largest number of sales in China: In 2008, Anta sold more than 26 million pairs of shoes in the entire Chinese market, more than 33 million. Clothes.

In the past 15 years, Anta has deployed more than 6,300 stores in the 3rd and 4th markets. At the same time, as one of the earliest sportswear OEM factories in China, Anta has an obvious manufacturing cost advantage: In 2008, Anta's average wholesale price for each item of clothing was RMB 57 and shoes were only RMB 94. This price level is exactly the same as China III. Fourth-level market preferences.

However, this status quo does not make Anta pragmatic.

It seems that things have indeed reached a time when adjustments are needed. In the half-year financial report ANTA just released, the growth rate in the first half of 2009 was 27.7%, which was 52.3% in 2008. In 2007, Anta was listed as a substantial 203.1%. In this regard, President Ding Shizhong explained that "because our base has become larger" - Anta sales in 2008 were 4.63 billion yuan, and this figure may reach about 6 billion yuan in 2009. But on the other hand, it is also the market is sending some kind of signal. In fact, many people have noticed that China's sporting goods market has shown some kind of weak growth during the post-Olympic period. Ding Shizhong also acknowledged that all domestic players in the first three to four years of the 2008 Olympic Games are rapidly growing at a rate of 50%-100%, and some companies are too optimistic that they will bring a lot of sequelae to the sporting goods industry in 2009 and 2010.

Like competitors, Anta needs to adapt to the new speed in the post-Olympic era. At the same time, as one of the Jinjiang sports leaders who have been in business for 15 years and listed in Hong Kong in 2007, the challenges Anta has faced in these two years may be far more complex than its rivals: from a manufacturing-oriented enterprise to a brand-based enterprise and from a family-owned enterprise to a public company. From the rapid growth of scale to the continuous growth with strategic intentions, and the advancement from the second and third tier cities... All these tests both the 39-year-old Ding Shizhong's courage and courage to upgrade and test his wisdom in leadership transformation.

Some people called the competition faced by Anta a “sandwich cake”: After Anta, Hongxing Erke, who is also a Jinjiang brand, was listed in Singapore in 2005. Xtep and 361 degrees were listed in Hong Kong in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and they will be listed soon. Peak, Deleon, etc., are all struggling to chase, trying to narrow the gap with Anta; and leaders Adidas and Nike are also trying to “sink” and increasingly penetrate into the third and fourth tier markets; and brand appeal is always hovering at Anta. On Li Ning: In 2008, due to the growth brought about by the Olympics, Li Ning's sales growth exceeded Anta for the first time, reaching a peak of about 56%.

“The big problem we are facing now is that many of the standards that Anta set out were based on the scale of revenue of more than one billion, and the operation of a 6 billion company is totally different from a billion companies.” Ding Shizhong Said, "After the Olympics, the industry's new round of integration will begin. It is an opportunity for a competent company, and it may be a crisis for an incapacitated company."

He decided to be the one to grasp the opportunity.