Anta Sports Products, which claims a 3.2 percent share of the Chinese sports footwear and apparel market; is yet another big Chinese producer/wholesaler/retailer involved in the sporting goods market that went public recently, in the wake of Belle International and other such companies. Anta says its turnover jumped by 203 percent in the first half ended June 30, reaching 1.50 billion renminbi ($199.0 m), while net profit surged by 285 percent to CNY203.3 million ($27.0m). In line with a plan to rebalance the product mix, footwear sales decreased from 67 percent to 53 percent of the total turnover, while apparel and accessories increased accordingly.
The company began only this year to market foreign sports brands such as Adidas, Reebok and Kappa, generating revenues of CNY50.1 million (€m-$m) from this business, but losing CNY2.9 million (€m-$m) on it. Out of this turnover, 29 percent came from wholesale transactions and the rest came from the 42 Adidas stores, 24 Reebok stores and 12 Kappa stores that it had in operation by June 30, exceeding its expectations.
In the second half of this year the company will also open some multi-brand sports stores that will offer these brands along with the Anta brand and others that may want to cooperate with it. The company is spending 12.2 percent of sales on brand promotion.
The group expects to end the year with a network of 4,500 stores in China, operated for the most part by agents and other third parties. It had a total of 4,238 shops in operation at the end of the first half, or 130 more than last Dec. 31. During the latest period Anta started up five new footwear production lines and an apparel production facility. An additional apparel factory and one more shoe plant will open before the end of the year.
Anta became involved in sports products in 2002. It claims to be second only to Li-Ning in the size of its distribution network in China. When it went public on the Hong Kong stock exchange a few weeks ago, with a market capitalization of nearly US$1.6 billion, it estimated its market share in China at 3.2 percent, compared with 13.1 percent for Nike, 12.3 percent for Adidas and 9.6 percent for Li-Ning.
Leslie Alexander, owner of the Houston Rockets, is said to have participated in the initial public offering. Yao Ming, the Chinese NBA star, is the team’s center player.
