Anta: Business Development Is Not Just A Good Pair Of Shoes.

The company issued the Environmental (Social, and Governance Report) in 2015 as the theme of "real corporate citizenship".

This year's turnover has just broken through billions of dollars in 2015, but it has been mentioned again.

The Jinjiang company, which is eager to "do every pair of shoes and clothes", has become the first Chinese sporting goods industry to publish the report.

How does Anta make a pair of sports shoes? What should Anta do after the product is finished? The reporter was invited to Anta headquarters in Jinjiang to investigate.

Cost performance and brand power

About one hour from Xiamen along the Xiangan tunnel to the northeast, it arrived at Jinjiang, one of the most economically developed counties in the country.

In Jinjiang, it is known as "ten families and nine overseas Chinese".

Many overseas Chinese businessmen who are "not bad money" make this small town with a population breaking through just two million, which has 45 listed companies, contributing a lot of brands and products known to people all over the country, such as India, angel, pan pan, Jacques, seven wolves, nine herd kings, and strong men's clothes.

As one of the most important clusters of Chinese sporting goods, it is also the base camp of the domestic sports shoes and clothing industry. Many sporting goods companies such as Anta, 361 degree, Jordan and noble bird are born here.

According to Anta's 2015 performance report, Anta's annual revenue in 2015 increased by 24.7% compared with the same period last year, reaching 11 billion 126 million yuan.

In 2025, the sports industry will reach 5 trillion of the industry, and billions of dollars are not astronomical figures, but it is enough to make Anta proud. This is the first time that China's sporting goods brand turnover has gone through billions of times, even though Lining, a former industry tycoon, has lost a fortune in the face of billions of dollars.

In the face of brilliant pcripts, Anta reclaims the spirit of craftsmen.

Ding Shizhong, chairman and CEO of Anta's board of directors, said that the goal of Anta is to become a respected world-class firms. The way is "using every craftsman's spirit to make every pair of shoes and clothes."

In terms of the scale and layout of sports industry development, this formulation is somewhat inappropriate and inappropriate.

But whether it is the rapid development of the sporting goods industry in the golden ten years or the shocking winter of the industry, Anta always seems to be on the right path.

"In the course of development, Anta made almost no mistakes.

This is terrible. "

Chen Xiaoping, deputy editor in chief, said.

In 1994, the Anta brand was founded.

In the era when the product has not yet been subdivided, sports shoes are collectively referred to as "travel shoes". Compared with those in Jinjiang who are pformed by sports shoes and garment processing factories, Anta is not much different.

Turning around in 1999, Ding Shizhong used half of the company's annual profit to sign Kong Linghui as the brand image spokesperson, launching the brand slogan "I choose, I like", and put the advertisement on CCTV sports channel.

Second months after the broadcast, orders from all over the country came to the market.

Anta's turnover rose rapidly from about twenty million to two hundred million.

For a while, sports star endorsement and advertising in five sets of CCTV became the marketing standard of Jinjiang shoes and clothing enterprises. CCTV sports channel was once dubbed "Jinjiang channel".

Anta has even started playing the brand name mentality. According to incomplete statistics, around 2000, there were more than 20 sports shoes and clothing brands with "safety" or "tread" in the name.

There are few words that can be chosen, and there is once a brand called Jian Tai in the market.

Since then, Anta has become an official partner of the CBA League, the Chinese Olympic Committee, China's 5 sports management centers, 24 national teams and NBA.

Among them, in 2009 became the official partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee, so that Anta and China Sports produced a strong chemical reaction.

In 2012, Anta overtook the curve and surpassed Lining to become the leading brand of China's sporting goods industry.

To this day, the light boxes marked with "Chinese Olympic Committee partners" at every Anta store are particularly conspicuous.

Such a strong correlation with Chinese sports makes consumers more easily moved by brand connotation.

In the upcoming Rio Olympic Games, each national anthem will play and the Chinese athletes will receive the highest podium. The champion dragon clothing produced by Anta will be seen in the eyes of millions of viewers.

In a sense, this is how consumers can resonate with Olympic heroes by buying sports products.

As the saying goes, all things are difficult at the beginning.

But the promotion of brand value is no easier than creating a brand.

After the Beijing Olympic Games, Lining, who did not have two of the limelight for a while, tried to raise the brand positioning and explore the brand price.

But the ambiguity of positioning and the immediate inventory crisis made Lining fall into a 4 year low.

In contrast, Anta's choice in the early days of becoming a leading industry should be low-key and pragmatic.

Even with the core resources of the Chinese Olympic Committee and the NBA star Clay Thompson, the price of Anta sports products has always been maintained in the category of "popular love".

Compared with Nike, ADI and Lining, Anta has an obvious price advantage. Compared with XTEP, noble bird and 361 degree, Anta's brand is more attractive.

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It is undeniable that positioning the national brand to allow Anta to face the surging international first-line brand, and even the industry "big brother" Lining, seems to have insufficient product premium capability.

Behind the lack of premium capability is the lack of product influence and appeal.

But Ding Shizhong did not intend to give Anta the responsibility for the promotion.

Under the "multi brand" strategic layout, Anta first bought fil China business, and Desanto, Itou Tada set up a joint venture in China, the exclusive distribution of Desanto brand products in the mainland, the two "foreign monks" are expected to read the high-end market through the two "foreign monks".

How to cover the whole market from mass to high-end, from adults to children, from professional to fashion, and how to achieve brand upgrading while maintaining cost-effective performance, Anta completed this task which was once considered impossible by "group operations".

Data show that in 2015, Anta group gross margin reached a record high of 46.62%, ranking the top of the domestic sporting goods brand.

Obviously, Anta is not a brand worried about selling goods but not making money.

Care and severity

In 2005, Anta first launched the first sports science laboratory in the sporting goods industry in China.

Over the past 10 years, laboratories have brought dozens of national patents to Anta.

Walking into a prestigious scientific laboratory, you can see that a series of machines that are introduced or independently developed and run continuously.

In order to improve product quality and lead the industry to set up higher industry standards, Anta's products need to undergo all kinds of cruel tests before coming out. For example, a pair of shoes need to be tested 4 to 60 thousand times in the sole bending endurance test, and the national requirement for this index is 30 thousand times.

In 2015, the cost of scientific research activities of Anta accounted for 5.2% of the cost of sales, the highest proportion of Chinese sports brands, and the proportion of Nike and ADI.

The corresponding response is a good consumer response. In a very perfect customer survey conducted by Anta, consumers scored 9 points on Anta product experience.

With the harsh treatment of products, Anta's attitude towards employees can be described with care.

Walking out of the Anta building, located in Jinjiang Century Avenue, you can see the factory building of the second business department of Anta shoe industry.

The first entry workshop was blocked by the scorching sun and irritating sultry, and there was no strong glue in the cool air.

According to the person in charge, in order to protect the health of employees, Anta installed central air-conditioning for the workshop and used non toxic water-soluble glue.

"The temperature of the workshop is 27 degrees a year, which was unthinkable before."

The official said with pride, "a few years ago, people were crying out for labor shortage.

But for Anta, there is almost no pressure.

It is understood that the second business unit of Anta footwear industry has more than 2000 workers from all over the country, and the average annual turnover rate is far below the average 8% to 9% turnover rate.

In addition to low income, such a low turnover rate also benefits from excellent working environment and meticulous corporate culture.

The former makes employees "decent work and dignity life", which allows employees to have a genuine sense of identity with Anta.

In Anta's workshops, canteens and conference rooms, large color posters can be seen everywhere. The slogan of "Keep moving" has been increasing rapidly in the face of Olympic champion's perseverance and confidence. When Anta has major events, the company will let employees know the first time through press releases or internal journals.

Seemingly simple jobs are rare in China's sporting goods industry.

Every day, the second business unit of Anta shoe industry will produce tens of thousands of pairs of sports shoes for the company, which accounts for a large proportion of Anta self operated footwear products.

For a large enterprise with 16700 employees, "getting people's heart" is the premise of getting good products.

Responsibility and future

Anta issued a "boost" at the headquarters of Jinjiang, the first environmental, social and regulatory report of China's sporting goods industry.

According to Anta executive director and COO Lai Shixian, Anta's environmental, social and regulatory report 2015 covered Anta's ideas, related initiatives and performance in 2015 in terms of environment, society and governance.

In order to enhance the objectivity and credibility of the report, Anta not only referred to the guidelines on environmental, social and regulatory reporting issued by the The Stock Exchange of HongKong Limited, but also drew on the guidance of the global reporting initiative's continuous reporting guidelines, so that Anta's disclosure in the environment, society and control areas is in line with the best international standards.

In addition, Anta has hired an independent third party testing agency "low carbon Asia" to conduct carbon emission audits and other environmental data statistics and analysis.

"This is the first time in nine years that Anta has released the report, and it is the first time such a report has been released in the industry," he said.

Lai Shixian said, "as a leading enterprise in China's sporting goods industry, Anta is obliged to fulfill its corporate citizenship responsibilities, give back to society and drive the development of the industry.

While developing enterprises, Anta should give full consideration to corporate social responsibility, and hope that "corporate citizenship" can become an important label for Anta.

We firmly believe that sustainable development can make Anta a respected world-class sporting goods company.

In the report, Anta released the company's greenhouse gas emissions data in 2015.

Data show that the total greenhouse gas emissions calculated by Anta in 2015 were 65010 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), which can be used to compare different greenhouse gas emissions units, and can calculate the impact of different greenhouse gas emissions on global warming. It is equivalent to 5.84 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per income of one million yuan.

Among them, the use of natural gas generated about 8232 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 56% of the total emissions, higher than the use of coal emissions of 5944 tons of greenhouse gases.

According to reports, in order to reduce carbon emissions, alleviate air pollution and mitigate the trend of global warming, Anta upgraded its fuel equipment and updated its hot water system equipment and its staff canteen boiler to replace natural gas with less pollutants when burning.

In addition, since some of the business sites were certified by ISO14001 environmental management system in 2005, Anta actively implements the environmental management system as required.

Today, Anta's operating point of implementing ISO14001 environmental management system is close to 100%.

Anta is also actively applying all kinds of environmental protection materials, such as DuPontTM Sorona, a bio based polymer with 37% of its raw materials from recyclable plants every year, and using renewable energy as much as possible, reducing the use of harmful materials and reducing the production of waste materials with low pollutant emissions.

Meanwhile, in the past year, Anta office's water consumption has decreased by 300000 tons, electricity consumption has decreased by 2000000 kwh, and office paper has been reduced by more than two tons.

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On the other hand, Anta also made clear the future direction of development in the report.

In the 13th Five-Year, with the nationwide fitness increasing as a national strategy, speeding up the development of sports industry, promoting sports consumption and deepening the reform of sports industry, the pace of development and pformation of Chinese sports will be faster and faster.

In response to this, Anta said that it will continue to actively cooperate with the national policy. It will not only put more resources into building a good atmosphere for national fitness, actively promote the popularization of football and basketball and other sports, encourage sports into life, but also make full efforts to develop winter sports related products and promote the popularization of ice and snow sports so as to cultivate national interest in winter sports.

In terms of environmental protection, Anta will take the gradual reduction of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions as a future development indicator, while maintaining day-to-day operations, and intensify efforts to implement relevant environmental protection measures to reduce the impact on global warming.

In terms of social and governance, Anta has made clear that it is necessary to set up an internal sustainable development team in the future, and incorporate the concept of sustainable development into the conditions of cooperation among all stakeholders, and make timely inspections to ensure the implementation of the terms.

Responsibility means challenge and obligation means pressure.

Since its establishment in 1994, Anta's identity has changed from a "catch-up" to a leader in the industry's highest position.

But next, from billion to 100 billion, from domestic to international, from being recognized to respected, Anta must do more things for every pair of shoes.

Those achievements that made Anta proud are now also a difficult problem on Anta's development path -- the management dilemma brought by multi brand strategy, the operational pressure brought about by asset operation, and the responsibilities, obligations and challenges that can not be avoided after becoming the leading enterprises in the industry.

In his speech on the environment, society and control report, Ding Shizhong said: "the changing business environment often brings new challenges to the industry, but the spirit of sports is always challenging yourself, trying to improve deficiencies and strives for perfection."

The pressure is seen in this sentence.

But more is determination.