Anta's multi-brand strategy spurs champion growth in H1

The country's leading sportswear group, Anta Sports Products Limited, has seen strong growth both in revenue and profits, ranking among the top three sportswear brands in the world by market valuation, propelled by its multiple brand strategy.

The group announced its interim report on Tuesday, saying its half-year revenue exceeded 22.8 billion yuan ($3.52 billion), with a growth rate of more than 55 percent, reaching record high results and consolidating the group's leading position in China's sportswear industry. Its profit attributable to shareholders increased by 131.6 percent to 3.84 billion yuan.

During the reporting period, the market value of Anta Sports exceeded HK$500 billion.

Ding Shizhong, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Anta Group, said: "China's market advantages and resilience are becoming prominent, and the consumer confidence for China's sports industry is still strong."

He added: "The group is building multi-brand operations as its core competitiveness with a consumer-centered approach. It will continue to promote the DTC (direct-to-customer) model which directly reaches out to consumers, and achieve development driven by technological innovation."

In July, Anta released its development strategy for the next five years. By 2025, the group's compounded annual growth rate for revenue will be 18 to 25 percent, and its overall market share will increase by 3 to 5 percent.

The group will focus on two core strategies – centered on professional sports and elevating the brand -- and invest 4 billion yuan in five years to strengthen innovation and product research and development.

In the first half of the year, its main brand Anta saw its consumer structure trend toward younger and more diversified groups, driving the rapid growth of online and offline sales as well as soaring revenue, up 56.1 percent to 10.58 billion.

The fashion sports brand Fila's revenue has grown by 51.4 percent to 10.82 billion yuan, powered by footwear sales as it continues developing a megastore model.

The outdoor sports brand is becoming a new growth engine behind the group's performance, said the company.

The group's high potential growth curve includes outdoor brands such as Descente and Kolon Sport, reaching revenue growth of 90.1 percent year-on-year.

Amer Sports saw its revenue exceed 1 billion euros, reductions in its gross profit and operating costs in the first half of 2021, and performance double in the Chinese market, with strong growth momentum.

Amer Sports' earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization reached 557 million yuan.

In the first half the 2021, Descente, a golf apparel brand, consolidated its positioning in high-end, premium textured and specialized sports gear, with rapid growth continuing in online and offline revenue.

Upgrades and improvements in the Kolon Sport brand and products led to major increases in revenue and store efficiency.

In the digital realm, the group's e-commerce revenue still continued soaring growth, up 61 percent year-on-year, while online sales growth for Anta and Descente, surpassed 50 percent.

According to statistics from the e-commerce platform Tmall, Anta Group ranked first in transactions of all enterprises in the industry in terms of revenue in the first half of 2021.

The group continued to push forward the digital intelligence transformation of the supply chain, and increased the response time among rapid response orders by a factor of three.

The planned construction of two new logistics centers in Guangdong province and in Chengdu, Sichuan province, will enhance the logistics system.

Construction for the Fila intelligent logistics center has already begun, said the company. A network of general warehouses and cloud warehouses has been developed nationwide, nearly doubling order processing efficiency, said the company.