Anta Sports, one of the largest Chinese manufacturers of sportswear and footwear, intends to enter the Russian market in 2014.
Anta is now registering a joint venture with its permanent distribution partner, the trade and purchasing company Sport 2011. Until the end of the year, two or three Anta points will be opened, the amount of investment will be five million euros.
According to Viktor Schmidt, co-owner of Sport 2011, which owns 40 stores in Russian regions, about a year ago, a Russian distributor made an offer to Chinese partners to jointly develop a chain of stores. “After about seven months they gave us their consent,” Schmidt said.
By 2016 Anta plans to open 20 mono-brand stores in Russia, with an area of 120-150 sq. m each. Two stores will be opened in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the rest - in the cities of presence of all partners of the Sport 2011 company - operators from several Russian regions operating under the franchise of large network sports brands such as Intersport and Sportlandia.
Anta will also continue to cooperate with Russian multi-brand networks and plans to open a sub-franchise network after 2015. The joint venture may also open Anta stores in Belarus, but, according to Ilya Varshavsky, this issue will be discussed in two to three years.
The Chinese company considers its pricing policy to be its advantage over the market leaders, such as Adidas or Nike. The cost of Anta's products is about 30% lower than that of the world leaders. The main competitor in Russia in its price segment among the companies selling sports footwear, clothing and accessories, Anta sees its own trademarks of the Sportmaster chain.
According to the consulting company Esper Group, the volume of the sportswear and footwear market in Russia in 2013 grew by 7,3% compared to 2012 and was estimated at $ 4,42 billion.
Note that Anta Sports started its activities in China in 1994. By the end of 2013, Anta's own chain of stores consisted of 7757 stores and 416 Fila stores. In addition to the Chinese market, the company's stores are represented in the Middle East and Western Europe. The company's revenue in 2013 amounted to 7281 million yuan (1,2 billion dollars). The main owner of the company is the Chinese billionaire Ding Shizhong and his family members.
Rating |