Columbia Acquisition Of Remaining Shares Of China Joint Venture To Better Control China's Market

In January 3rd, the Columbia company announced that it completed the acquisition of the remaining 40% stake in Columbia's sports apparel company and China joint venture, which was planned to complete on the 1 th.

The acquisition was announced in April last year, but subject to regulatory approval.

The joint venture started operation in January 1, 2014 and is headquartered in Shanghai.

Columbia sportswear company has 60% of the business, while the Chinese joint venture company owns 40% of the shares. The proportion of its profits and losses is similar.

Swire resources in Hong Kong and Macao and the domestic market has 250 retail outlets including Nike, Adidas and New Balance sports franchise franchise stores.

Columbia's brand future plans include continuing investment in China's development and expanding retail outlets for direct and dealer operations.

Columbia intends to maintain its existing management team, staff, distributors and distribution network to help Columbia brand develop in China.

By the end of 2017, the joint venture had set up 86 retail outlets in China and sold through several brand specific e-commerce websites in China.

It has a distribution relationship with about 50 wholesalers selling about 750 retail outlets.

In 2017, sales in the Chinese mainland amounted to 1 billion yuan, and analysts expect the brand to achieve a high single digit growth in 2018.

Over the past year, Columbia's sales in Latin America and Asia have not been satisfactory.

The third quarter results showed that sales in Latin America and Asia fell by 4%, mainly due to the slump of distributors and China business.

Earlier, the US outdoor brand Columbia announced the appointment of John Soh as its vice president and general manager of China market, which is in charge of China business and John Soh has worked for Nike.