Anta Ding Shizhong: The "Never Stop" Of "Grassroots Hero"

April 2nd is somewhat handsome. Ding Shizhong He is not tall enough to walk like a fly. It seems that there is a kind of Jinjiang businessman's temperament. As a representative of the Jinjiang department, Ding Shizhong is not very talkative and understated.

After graduating from junior high school, he "made a self" way out, Ding Shizhong, led in a short time. Anta It has grown from a shoe factory with only a few million turnover to a listed company that sells billions of dollars annually. He has spoken more than once. The goal of Anta is to surpass Lining.

In 2008, with strong Olympic Games, Lining The turnover reached a historical breakthrough of 6 billion 690 million yuan and a net profit of 521 million yuan. And Anta's turnover has soared, reaching 4 billion 630 million yuan, and its net profit has reached 895 million yuan. "The phenomenon of Anta gives us a warning: that is, don't give up the low-end market." As Lining, the champion's heart, says, Lining can no longer ignore the existence and threat of Anta.

From a shoemaker to a chairman of a listed company, Ding Shizhong created the national brand of the Chinese sports industry "Anta". In the 2010 Hurun clothing rich list, he ranked second in the fortune 19 billion yuan and ranked first in the sports goods tycoons.

Last December, Ding Shizhong passed his forty year old birthday and entered the forty stage of life. In 2007, Anta was successfully listed in Hongkong. In 2009, Anta acquired Italy brand FILA. Where does Ding Shizhong's "never stop" slogan lead Anta to?

grassroots hero

Ding Shizhong, who was born in 1970, is "grass roots". There is hardly any resource available. Like any teenager born in the ordinary Chinese town in the 70s of last century, he longed for his family to be rich and at least able to afford a motorbike.

Ding Shizhong's Chen Dai town in Jinjiang is a small town with an area of only 38.8 square kilometers. It is now the most important production ground for sports shoes in China and even in the world. In the early 80s, shoes factory was built around here, and Ding Shizhong grew up in a shoe workshop from an early age.

After graduating from junior high school, he began to "seek his own way". The only thing that had something to do with the "sports industry" in the future was that his father's shoe making workshop was producing "travel shoes" (which was not called sneakers at that time). From childhood, Ding Shizhong watched the family make shoes made of semi hand-made shoes for OEM orders at a very low price, and put them on Nike's trademark and shipped them to every corner of the world. Not only does his family do this, but many families in Chen Dai town regard this order as a way to get rich. Everyone was satisfied with this state of comfort.

Ding Shizhong was very early willing to start a business. "This has something to do with the infection of Minnan culture. There is a song in Southern Fujian called" love to win. " In the early days of reading and in the early days of reform and opening up, I saw a large number of Jinjiang people running around the country to do business. At that time, like teenagers like us, it was easy to be infected by the villagers around us. Ding Shizhong said.

In 1986, Ding Shizhong, 16, had neither capital nor experience. His only courage was courage. With his father's 600 pairs of shoes, he came to the unaccompanied Beijing. With a young uncompromising stubbornness and cleverness, Jinjiang shoes were placed on the counters of the shopping malls in Beijing, including the Wangfujing (600859, stock bar) shopping mall in Beijing. This inspiring story which shows Ding Shizhong's personality has been mentioned again and again. "At the beginning, it was to consider selling the shoes of Jinjiang to the outside market, which coincided with the transformation from the planned economy to the market economy. I think there is a certain commercial space, so that's the way to start a business." {page_break}

In the 4 years of Beijing, Ding Shizhong not only earned 200 thousand yuan, but also accumulated the "first pot of gold", which opened his eyes to his life: why OEM shoes can only sell for more than ten yuan, while the brand shoes in the store can sell hundreds of pieces? Maybe he was the first Chinese to start thinking about the "made in China upgrading" of a small number of people, and plunge into it and put it into practice.

Making his own brand, doing the domestic market, and making shoes that Chinese people can afford - his judgement will prove to be a road to light. Ding Shizhong's adventures and his love of all kinds of innovations - the spirit of entrepreneurship - made him unique even in the Jinjiang soil full of entrepreneurial passion. But at that time, Ding Shizhong's actions were puzzled by many people who did not do a lot of OEM lists, rather than set up a national distribution channel to create a nameless brand of shoes, which seemed too risky. As a matter of fact, when the brands such as Nike later withdrew from Jinjiang, they suddenly lost the "God of wealth" factory owners. Then they suddenly realized that they either closed their doors in a flash or began to learn Ding Shizhong's own brand. At this point, Ding Shizhong is on the way.

In 1994, Ding Shizhong returned to Jinjiang with 200 thousand yuan earned from Beijing and founded Anta with his father Ding Siren. The father and son decided to name their own shoe factories and products as "Anta", implying "peace of mind, pioneering work and down-to-earth" means. At that time, Ding Shizhong set several goals for the company: the first stage is to make the order, the second stage is to do the market, and the third stage is to win fame.

In 1999, Anta asked Kong Linghui to become a brand endorser. At that time, the effectiveness of Anta was less than one million, and the advertisement cost 800 thousand, and Anta's risk can be imagined.

"At that time, a lot of people outside looked at us differently. It takes a lot of money to invite a spokesperson in a year. At that time, many shoe factories in Jinjiang were making foreign orders, and they were very comfortable. So in such a case, you do such a thing, it means to go a different way from others. But at the beginning, our dream is different from others. Our biggest dream is to build our own brand and sell our brand. Ding Shizhong said.

Since then, less than two years later, Anta's share in the sports shoes market has reached 13%. As a result, one stone stirred up thousands of waves, and the success of Anta led to the brand revolution of Jinjiang footwear industry, and caused other enterprises to follow suit.

Kong Linghui once joked that he had a predestined relationship with Ding Shizhong, because people who met them all said they looked alike, and more importantly, Anta and Kong Linghui grew together. Kong Linghui won the gold medal in the men's singles of the Sydney Olympic Games in second years when he signed a contract with Anta.

Since then, Anta has completed the construction from production to self marketing system, and has focused on two or three line cities. "We need to become a leader in the value chain." Ding Shizhong said that in the face of more and more imitators, he kept thinking about how to run faster, and Jinjiang took the lead in the increasingly competitive competition.

At the very beginning, Ding Shizhong put Anta's target on a larger stage. Anta has established Anta Fujian and Anta China. In April 2002, a company called Jinjiang Shi Fa became a shareholder of Anta Fujian by investing 30 million yuan in production equipment and related assets, holding 60% of its shares. Jinjiang Shi Fa is the 100% holding company of the Ding Shizhong family. Ding Shizhong's father, Ding Sien, holds 60% of the shares. The two brothers and their wives hold 10% of their shares respectively.

Later, Ding Shiyan transferred the beneficial interests of Anta Fujian and Anta China to Ding Shizhong without compensation. At the same time, Jinjiang Shifa all shareholders also transferred the beneficial interest of Jinjiang to Jinjiang, and Ding Shizhong became the only beneficial owner of Anta Fujian and Anta China.

Break the conventional {page_break}

At first, the high-speed running began to make Ding Shizhong feel stressed. The rapid growth of turnover and expanding team make him understand that relying solely on experience is no longer beyond the limits of management. The speed of Anta's own talent training can not keep pace with the growth of the company. "De familial" has become a barrier for Anta.

From 2006 onwards, the consultants of the suit became very frequent in various departments of Anta: kirney Gang planned the strategy, Hao Teng acted as a media agent, KPMG acted as an accountant, and JW had outsourced brand management. Anta executives have spent a lot of time finding and solving problems with consultants.

After finishing the internal combing, Anta went public in Hongkong in 2007, which can be seen as a sign that the company moves from family control to systematic operation. At the same time, professional managers were invited by Ding Shizhong to Anta, and the management team is becoming more and more diversified. Enough talent reserves also let Ding Shizhong more emboldened to take new risks.

With sufficient back-up funds, Ding Shizhong has been eyeing the NBA of the US basketball association, which is far away from the ocean, sponsoring NBA. When the company went public, Ding Shizhong signed Francis, Scola and Bonzi Wells of the Rockets. In the brand marketing war of NBA stars, Anta and domestic shoe enterprises PEAK and Lining formed the tripartite confrontation.

Ding Shizhong chose Francis because he was a rocket player popular with Chinese fans, and Yao Ming was also a good friend. However, for Anta, Francis's injuries and decommissioning made Anta taste the risk of sponsorship.

Compared with Francis, Scola has entered NBA for less than a year, and is still not a promising rookie. It is obviously not the best choice to attract the world's attention quickly. But most of the NBA stars have been around. The price of the big stars who have not yet signed up has made Anta unable to catch up. Although the wrist is not big enough, but for Ding Shizhong, Scola's characteristics coincide with that of Anta. He was born in a basketball coach family. I was modest, cultivated and hardworking. "He is not practicing, he is training his life." Ding Shizhong commented on Scola.

From the initial sponsorship of CBA (Chinese men's Professional Basketball League) to NBA, Ding Shizhong seems to have been fascinated by the sponsorship and promotion of sports stars. Ding Shizhong has been promoting "power" to basketball, tennis and table tennis for many years.

The two major events in Anta's history are Ding Shizhong's best showing: first, he successfully bid for the 2009-2012 year Chinese Olympic Committee's partners; the two is the Chinese trademark ownership and Hong Kong and Macao retail business which acquired HK $400 million for Italy brand FILA.

In June 2009, Anta beat rivals Lining and Adidas to become sponsors of China National Olympic Committee's sports apparel. This means that in 2009-2012 years, the Chinese Olympic delegation will appear in the world in Anta sportswear during the 11 events. The shoemaking factory, which is coming out of Chen Di Town, Jinjiang, Quanzhou, Fujian, will be breaking into people's eyes as a giant star with the TV relay.

People who know Ding Shizhong will not be surprised by Anta's unpopularity in this Olympic sponsorship. He is known for his courage and determination in the sports apparel industry. Before 2008, the sponsor of the Chinese Olympic delegation was Lining, who even thought that China's outstanding sports brand only had the red LOGO Lining card. In 2008, the sponsor of the Chinese Olympic Committee was Adidas. It was said that the sponsorship cost of the company was close to 100 million US dollars. Ding Shizhong said: "in order to cooperate with the Chinese Olympic Committee, Anta has prepared sufficient matching funds." Anta is willing to pay high price to compete with strong international brands.

The reason why he supported the Chinese Olympic Committee at all costs was that he knew that the sports industry must join hands with heavyweight stars. By sponsoring China's top sports leagues and excellent athletes, Anta gradually occupied a high position, ranking the first in China's sports shoes market for eight consecutive years. {page_break}

Why buy Italy brand FILA? "Anta has been committed to becoming a multi brand management company. Anta's own brand positioning has been doing well in the public sector. We have always wanted to find a high-end brand. FILA this brand is good, so we seize this opportunity to buy FILA to complement Anta brand. " Ding Shizhong said Anta plans to build the FILA brand as a new growth point for the group and hopes to make profits in 2012. For Ding Shi Zhong, the acquisition of international high-end brands makes the company go further in the race with Adidas.

Under the impulsive high-end impulse, "Anta's future positioning must be a multi brand management company", Ding Shizhong stressed again. After the competitive level of capital competition, what he has to do is to continue to grasp the balance between change and stability.

In August 16, 2010, Anta first announced its first half report. Thanks to factors such as brand value upgrading, distribution network expansion and leading product development and design, Anta's turnover in the first half of the year rose 22.6% to about 3 billion 450 million yuan, gross profit rose 29.1% to about 1 billion 510 million yuan, and profit attributable to shareholders increased by 25% to 760 million over the same period last year.

Previously, Forbes, the world's leading financial magazine, named "2010 China's best brand value". Anta's outstanding marketing performance, such as winter Olympics sponsorship, jumped to twenty-first place, and surpassed Mengniu, Haier and many other famous brands with its brand value of about 5 billion 270 million yuan.

In the first half of last year, the number of Anta brand stores increased from 461 to 7052, becoming one of the only two sporting goods brands with 7 word heads in China, and maintained the leading edge of Anta distribution network. In addition, in order to better grasp the huge business opportunities of online shopping, Anta set up an official flagship store on Taobao network to seize the e-commerce market. "Anta will continue to accelerate the expansion of distribution networks." Ding Shizhong said that in the future, the number of Anta brand stores increased to 7400, the lifestyle shop increased to 600, and the children's shop increased to 350, which was higher than that at the beginning of this year. With the government's favorable economic policies coming out, it will help improve the purchasing power of Chinese consumers and the sensitivity and attention of the public to brands. The rapid development of the two or three tier cities has made Ding Shizhong optimistic about the Chinese sporting goods market.

Ding Shizhong intends to raise the funds raised to support the bigger plan: to establish vertical production lines, at least more than half of its capacity comes from itself, not superstition "light assets"; set up a huge brand promotion and marketing budget, continue to enhance Anta brand; and expand the coverage of channels, strengthen channel control; and invest a considerable part of the profits into R & D and design every year. Anta owns the only state-level Sports Science Laboratory in shoe enterprises.

In Ding Shizhong's view, technological innovation is the only way for the development of enterprises. Anta always regards technological innovation as the core competitiveness of enterprises and the key to leading the industry. At present, Anta sports science laboratory has contributed more than 41 national patents to Anta, and was approved by the national development and Reform Commission at the end of last year to become the first and only national enterprise technology center in the sporting goods industry.

"Our government's stimulus measures and revitalization of the sports industry plan will be conducive to the long-term development of the domestic sporting goods industry." Ding Shizhong said that in the face of the strong demand brought by the rapid growth of the mass sporting goods market, Anta will actively use sports sponsorship resources, conduct marketing activities, and launch high-quality products with high added value, so as to further enhance the differentiation of brands and products. We will further strengthen the competitive advantage and leading position in the mass market and gain more market share. "

Ding Shizhong is not only born with courage, but also has a brave heart. Although only finished junior high school, Ding Shizhong's good learning spirit has always been accompanied by him, and he will learn to apply it. "My greatest strength is that I dare to learn and dare to use. My biggest personality is to deny myself constantly." Ding Shizhong once rated himself so.