Anta'S FILA Opens Two Flagship Stores In Shanghai This Year To Open More Than 1000 Stores



Last week, Anta's sports brand FILA opened at two flagship stores in Nanjing road and Huaihai Road, Shanghai, and released the latest season's best seller.

It is understood that the two shops will include a full range of FILA products including children's clothing.

The continuous opening of shops in the core business circle illustrates the momentum of a brand. In fact, the sports brand from Italy has indeed become the engine of Anta's growth. Anta's sales and net profit have maintained double-digit growth for several quarters, of which FILA's performance has been rising steadily.

According to Anta's 2017 China Daily, FILA's revenue has reached 20% of the group's revenue.

As a result of good sales performance, the number of FILA stores has also maintained a rapid growth.

According to the Anta annual report, as of the end of December 2017, there were 1086 FILA (including FILA KIDS independent stores) in the Greater China region, and 1300 to 1400 stores in 2018.

As of December 2017, the number of Anta's main brand stores, including Anta's children's independent stores, was 9467.

Anta's expectations of FILA can also be seen from the growth target set by 2020 to 2025, the growth rate of FILA will exceed 30%, higher than the overall double-digit growth rate of the group.

Judging from the above, it is a successful acquisition case.

But the story did not start well.

In August 2015, Anta sports purchased the trademark rights and franchises of BELLE International's FILA in China with 332 million yuan, which is the same as Hong Kong listed companies, and intends to occupy the high-end sports market through it.

The deal was not favored by the market at that time, because the FILA brand was still very new in China and still in a loss. BELLE's poor operation also made it marginalized in its brand.

The popular sports brand at that time was Kappa.

The turn of the situation owes to Anta's clear positioning of FILA, "high-end sports and fashion", aiming at companies and young consumers who have certain spending power in the first and second tier cities.

Store strategy accordingly.

Since 2011, the main brand of Anta has entered the in-depth adjustment period of large-scale inventory reduction, streamlining stores and strengthening channel control, which lasted for five years.

However, during this period, FILA opened up stores in a big way. There were about 80 new businesses opened each year, and mainly located in the core business circle of the second tier cities, which was adjacent to Adidas, Nike and other brands. This quickly helped FILA establish brand awareness.

And Anta's main brand, Anta is also interested in it.

According to "first financial weekly" previously reported, Anta has dug up the French high-end leisure brand LACOSTE China's chief executive officer Yao Weixiong as FILA president of the Greater China region, set up a new team responsible for products, channels and operations.

On the localization of international brands, LACOSTE has enough experience to follow, and it has been caught in the "crocodile trademark".

With the experience of FILA, Anta accelerated the multi brand strategy.

In 2016, Anta introduced Japan's high-end sports brand Descente into a joint venture, and then introduced the Korean outdoor brand Kolon Sport, aiming at high-end with FILA.

After the launch of FILA KIDS in 2015, it acquired the high-end brand layout of Hongkong brand Kingkow.

The market; Anta, NBA brand, and SPRANDI.

Some commentators believe that for Anta, to achieve revenue from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of leaps, instead of looking forward to building the next FILA, we should comprehensively enhance the main brand's revenue and profit levels.

Although Anta has surpassed Lining's top brand of the local sports brand in 2013, it still has a magnitude difference compared with Nike, Adidas and other world-class sports brands.