Ding Shuibo, A Sleeping Quanzhou Man, Starts His Own Business

"The sleeps of Quanzhou people want to be bosses."

It is Ding Shuibo's evaluation of himself. He has a special liking for native songs from Fujian.

This year is the second year when Ding Shuibo, President of XTEP (China) Limited, has entered the age of no doubt. It is also the tenth birthday of XTEP.

For Ding Shui Po, the best gift may not be all the honors he gained personally. However, under the backdrop of the overall economic slowdown, XTEP also ranks first among the five local sports brands with a year-on-year increase of net profit of 18.77%.

It is undeniable that XTEP's rising local sports brands are lucky to catch up with the fastest growing period of China's economy.

But after the climax, it is the biggest test for Ding Shuibo to maintain or even exceed the next ten years in the internal and external market structure.

Begins with grass roots

Because of love, so cherish; because know, so compassion.

In the company, employees are affectionately calling Ding Shuibo "Bo Ge".

"Easy-going", "no shelf" and "energetic" are the most employees' comments on him.

Ding Shuibo is a typical entrepreneurial generation. At the age of 17, he began to work hard. Starting from the initial starting point of 1500 yuan, the initial production mode was to build a small shed on the riverside, producing dozens of pairs of slippers every day, gradually developing to OEM for foreign enterprises, and then building up their own enterprises and brands. Step by step, XTEP now has more than 23 billion 800 million yuan in total sales (including taxes).

"The sleeps of Quanzhou people want to be bosses."

It's Ding Shuibo's evaluation of himself.

In 2003, the "SARS" period was the most difficult time for XTEP. "In those months, no one was on the street, no one was shopping, business was almost zero. In that time, the agents were around us."

Steady agents and dealer teams are the pride of Ding Shui Bo.

Had not been recognized

In retrospect, Ding Shuibo believes that XTEP's most successful product is "clear product positioning".

In fact, the outside world has always believed that from the beginning of the brand concept, XTEP has always used Nike as a reference frame.

Even though it is the corporate logo, Nike uses a big hook, while XTEP is using a big fork.

In this regard, Ding Shuibo did not shy away from it: "Nike is China's sporting goods industry idols, Nike is doing professional sports, and XTEP is doing fashion sports."

The Fukien who was born in the 70s of the last century broke the stereotypes of sports, and created the new cognition of sports after 1980s and 1990s. That is, buying sports clothes is not only for sports, but also for buying a fashion.

However, the positioning of XTEP's "fashion movement" was not recognized at the beginning.

"In 2001 and 2002, most of the sneakers on the market were white, black and gray, even ADI.

After the Sydney Olympic Games ended in 2000, all the domestic sporting goods went to imitate Nike and imitate Adidas. They all asked the Olympic champion to be the brand spokesperson, but XTEP turned to entertainment star Nicholas Tse for endorsement.

Unexpectedly, in 2002, XTEP launched the "wind and fire shoes" with Nicholas Tse's rebellious image. The annual sales volume of a single product reached 1 million 200 thousand pairs, and no one ever surpassed it.

XTEP's sports brand's fashion route was opened. Subsequently, Jolin, TWINS, Willber Pan and Han Geng also became spokesmen for XTEP.

Starting from the product and deepening the brand is Ding Shuibo's vision for the next ten years. From the commodity driven mode to the brand operation mode, XTEP is undergoing a pformation.

There are soldiers behind.

The business sea always has ups and downs.

After a crazy growth, the mainland sports brand market has entered a structural adjustment period.

XTEP international last year's annual report shows that although XTEP has ranked the top five sports brands in terms of revenue growth, it still takes some time to digest 670 million yuan stock.

Look at the two major sports giants Lining and Anta.

Although Lining suffered from the plight of performance growth, he still ranked the first place in the local brand with revenue of 8 billion 929 million yuan.

As the rising star of Fujian brand, Anta's net profit increased to 1 billion 730 million yuan last year, far exceeding XTEP's 966 million yuan.

Shoes and clothing marketing expert Ma Gang told reporters analysis, at present, in the local brand, XTEP ranking can only be considered "old three", and do not say the gap with Lining, Anta, now, Germany and Hui brand positioning is also similar to XTEP, later pressure can not be despise.

In addition to the fierce pursuit of local rivals, even the international famous Nike and Adidas also started the strategy of "channel sinking".

Two or three line market smoke four.

For XTEP, which sets about 80% retail outlets in two to four tier cities, fierce fighting is inevitable.

Ding Shuibo told reporters firmly that the two or three line should continue, but the number of new stores this year is much lower than that of last year. "Our focus is on refurbishing 800 stores, and the sixth generation terminal image store is more fashionable, which will bring 20% to 30% increase in the same store value."

Previously, XTEP executive director and chief financial officer He Ruibo had publicly stated that the company's sales target was lowered from 15% to the number of units this year, while the net growth of shops dropped from 800 to 1000 last year to about 400.

Affected by uncertainties in the international economic environment, raw materials prices and digestion of inventory, Ding Shuibo told reporters: "2012 will be more difficult than 2011."

Perhaps, how to pcend adversity is Ding Shuibo's biggest test at the moment.