China Sport apparel The Chinese sport giant Born in 1971, Ding Shizhong is a real Self-made man. When he was base in Europe and North America and establish an international only 16 years old, this young man started working to help his family presence. financially. His father was then a shoe manufacturer, shoes that Ding When it first started, ANTA Sports brand mainly copied its models Shizhong offered to resell later. This is where his love and passion for on Western brands by offering low prices. But little by little, China ‘‘shoes came from. He worked for several companies but always on was opening up, the domestic market was growing ($43bn today) the same sector : shoes. and ANTA Sport gained in competence. The group evolved from a In 1994, his dream of creating his own sport shoe brand finally saw competition strategy on prices to a value and innovation strategy, Ding Shizhong the light of day. The entrepreneur launched ANTA Sports with his the only way for this type of business to take on an international brother Ding Shijia. The company was listed on the Hong Kong stock dimension. exchange in 2007. But it was not that easy for the two brothers. First The advent of sneakers, the popularization of sport in China these

promised to a promising future, ANTA Sport has experienced a major past years and the recent Sino-American tensions contributed to the

Ding Shizhong is the co-founder of ANTA Sports, boom thanks to the 2008 Olympic Games and the new interest of group’s success. Young Chinese, who are more and more sensitive to now a leading sportswear company in China. Since Chinese people in sporting goods. local brands, have welcomed this entry-level move. 1/4 of fashion 2007, the company is listed on the Hong Kong stock ‘‘ However, the path to success was filled with obstacles. Many sales are made by digital in China, which favors ANTA Sports more

‘‘ exchange. competitors are setting up in Jinjiang to produce their sport shoes. compared to foreign brands. Finally, their local factories, allowed His fortune reaches $5,7bn. Supply is increasing and the market is quickly saturated. Ding them to quickly adapt to trends. , (source : Forbes 2020). Shizhong had to close many of his stores in order to fight the crisis Nowadays, ANTA Sports is one of the leading sports retailers in China. led by this overabundance of inventories. The group is mainly pulled up by its domestic sales. ANTA Sports The businessman then understands that he will have to quickly owns a 15% market share, 3rd place behind Nike (23%) and Adidas distinguish his brand from competitors. The manager set up an (20%). Like these two big sport giants, ANTA Sports is a sponsor of omni-channel strategy based on several successful brands. Indeed, many top athletes (Chinese and others). Ding Shizhong was convinced that adopting a multi-brand strategy Ding Shizhong wishes to « build the LVMH of sport ». A true targeting several consumer segments would be the solution to the self-made man, he is part of country’s star bosses. ANTA Sports was development of his brand. Headquarter in Jinjiang, China ranked among the 20 most profitable companies in the world with MONTHLY TYCOON - JULY 2020 - JULY TYCOON MONTHLY 30 800 employees in 2019 Therefore, the company followed a multi-brand and onmi- companies such as LVMH, Inditex and Kering. Market cap $26bn channel strategy - increasing its client base through acquisitions Very committed, the group recently made a donation of $1.4bn in Turnover $4,84bn of international high-end sportswear brands that take advantage research against Covid-19. Profits $764M of sales on the national market like FILA, DESCENTE, SPRANDI,

KEY FIGURES KEY Ding Shizhong is Chairman and is responsible for all of the group’s 38% male and 62% female in the company KINGKOW and KOLON Sport . In 2019, Amer Sports, a Finnish business strategies, planning and business development. His big

sportswear group that owns internationally recognized brands, such brother, Ding Shijia, is Vice-Chairman. Ding Shizong is married, has

as Salomon (famous ski and outdor brand), were bought by Mascot ANTA Sports Bidco Oy, an international consortium led by the Anta Sports group two children and currently lives in Quanzhou, China. ANTA Kids (10 516 ANTA stores in 2019) for $4.6bn. This acquisition allowed Anta Sports to develop a solid ‘‘ FILA (including FILA Kids) FILA Fusion (1 951 FILA stores in 2019) DESCENTE (136 stores in 2019)

ANTA GROUP ANTA KOLON Sport (185 stores in 2019) Amer Sports (including Salomon) « Shoes never left my life ».

1