How Did It Go From "Hot Potato" To "100 Billion Dollars"?

When it comes to sports fashion clothes, FILA has to be brought up.

This sport brand with Italy ancestry has changed frequently and experienced a period of low ebb.

However, after being bought by Anta, Felix achieved a counterattack. Its sales last year broke through 10 billion yuan, and became the engine of Anta's performance growth, helping Anta successfully reach the throne of the first sports brand in China.

Hundred years brand has changed frequently.

Phil's birthplace is in Italy.

In 1911, a pair of brothers named Phil founded the brand in a town in Italy.

At first, its products were mainly tennis and golf equipment.

Until 1970s, in order to cater for the needs of the masses, Fiat also set up basketball, skiing, mountaineering, yoga and other product lines.

Subsequently, Fei Le sponsored many excellent athletes.

For instance, in tennis, Bjorn Berg, the legendary tennis legend who ranks first in the world in 109 consecutive weeks, won 11 grand slam and 63 championship trophies, is the spokesman for Grant Hill in basketball field. He has been hailed as "the closest man to Jordan".

However, after entering the twenty-first Century, Fei Le's fate can be said to be very turbulent.

In 2003, Fiat was bought by SportBrandInternationalLtd. in New York. In March 2007, FILAKorea Ltd., which was responsible for the Asia Pacific region's business, agreed to buy the world's footwear and apparel business by holding Global Leading Brands House and Sport Brand International Ltd..

In the same year, BELLE international bought all the rights and interests of Fiji brand China (including Hongkong and Macao area) for 48 million US dollars.

In the second half of 2007, BELLE group set up a wholly owned Affiliated Companies, FullProspect, which owns and manages the Fiat China Trademark in Hongkong, Macao and the mainland, and is responsible for selling sportswear, footwear products and accessories with FIE China Trademark in retail sales.

However, due to poor management, Fiat's brand influence in China has become increasingly marginalized and its business has even suffered losses.

Public information shows that FullProspect's net loss amounted to 5 million 530 thousand yuan in 2007, and the loss in 2008 expanded to 32 million 180 thousand yuan.

The huge loss made BELLE decide to sell the "hot potato", which is Anta.

In August 2009, Anta announced that it bought the trademark's right to use and franchise in China with a total price of HK $600 million.

In this regard, many analysts believe that Fei Le business in the short term will not bring great improvement to Anta's revenue, because the brand recognition in the Chinese market needs to be improved, and is still at a loss.

Zhang Tao, vice president of Anta, said that the acquisition of Fiji was to complement each other.

Fei Le mainly takes the high-end sports route, and has obvious advantages in international brand effect and technology research and development.

But the domestic high-end segmentation sports consumption market still has great potential, plus Anta's local influence and sales channel resources, the entry of FIE is conducive to seize the domestic high-end sports market share.

Anta acquisition positioning sports fashion

Anta positioned Fiat as a high-end fashion sport brand, and adjusted the product design, sales links and marketing of Felix.

In terms of product design, Yao Weixiong, President of Felix Greater China, admitted that what he most valued was the degree of innovation of products.

"As a brand, repeat past successful products, consumers will soon be tired of it. Do your products have enough freshness?" then consumers will chase you.

He said in an interview with the media: "first, I require less than half of the innovative fabrics for every season.

Second, the ratio of imported materials should be no less than 40%. "

Besides pursuing innovation in product design, FIE's sales channels are different from other sports brands at that time.

At that time, most of the sports brands had adopted the mode of distribution, while Fei Lecong dealers took back almost all the stores and converted them into a direct camp mode.

Yao Weixiong said, after all, dealers are still buying and selling cooperation, while self run can achieve one hundred percent of the whole store's control power, from decoration, display to sale, all directly controlled by the headquarters.

But he also admitted: "headquarters directly manages hundreds of stores, which is very tiring.

But there's never been a free lunch in business. If you want to do business well, you have to pay more for details. "

In addition, another advantage of the direct camp mode is that the brand can react quickly to the consumption trend of the market, which is also crucial for a sports brand that is fashionable and needs to keep up with the trend.

In terms of marketing, Fei Le takes the marketing layout based on entertainment and fashion stars.

Whether Hsu Chi, Chen Kun or Gao Yuanyuan, each spokesperson has attracted many consumers for Felix.

Anta has said that the brand will continue its consistent entertainment star strategy and dig deep into the middle-class audience resources from 20 to 45 years old.

With the unremitting efforts of Anta, Felix began to reverse its decline in 2014 to achieve profitability.

Until 2016, Fiat had a new role in Anta: performance engine.

According to Anta's 2016 earnings report, Fei Le achieved cross-border movement and fashion, pulling the clothing category gross margin increased by 3.2 percentage points.

Related experts of the China Clothing Association told the China Daily News that Fei Le could turn around a deficit and gain a profit, partly because of its deep historical background, which would help to increase consumer trust.

And Anta's pformation of Fiat can also help attract consumers who are more consumptive and individualized.

Last year, 10 billion yuan revenue success counter attack

After accumulating a wealth of operational experience, Fei Le fully laid out the sports and fashion market last year.

In September last year, Felix landed in Milan fashion week, Yao Weixiong said: "Fei Le, on the basis of his own Italian DNA, has constantly introduced fashion elements into the field of sports, and has fully interpreted his unique sport concept through the perfect combination of innovative fabrics, fashion design and aesthetic aesthetics.

Last year, the brand chose to return to Italy, the stage of the Milan fashion week, to subvert the traditional sports brand image and show the world the growth and pformation of Fiat with a new fashion.

In addition, the market promotion of Felix is becoming younger.

Fei Le released the trend sports brand "FILAFUSION", signed Wang Yuan, Huang Jingyu, Ma Sichun as the new spokesperson, which marks that Fay will march into the young consumer market between 20 and 30 years old.

Stars really stimulate consumers' desire to shop.

The China Commercial Daily reporter conducted random interviews at Fay's store, and many consumers said they decided to buy the brand after their favorite star became spokesperson.

Fay shop sales staff also said that many consumers came to find "star with the money", some of the series has been out of stock.

As for sales channels, as of last December 31st, Fei Le opened 1652 stores in China and Singapore, and its stores in China were mainly distributed in the second tier cities.

Fiat's efforts were rewarded.

From the performance of Anta last year, Anta's annual business income rose 44.4% to 24 billion 100 million yuan, and net profit increased 32.9% to 4 billion 100 million yuan, becoming the leader of domestic sports brand.

Fei Le last year's sales exceeded 10 billion yuan, sales growth of more than 80%, is currently the largest contribution of Anta's brand.

The experts said that the market is generally optimistic about the future growth of Felix.

Compared to professional sportswear, sports fashion series dress is suitable for more occasions, and more suitable for young consumers to pursue personalized and differentiated aesthetic trend.

In addition, the high-end sports fashion line of Fiat also provides a higher premium for the brand, and there will be much room for future profit.

"In the future, fiele needs to continue to work hard on consumer loyalty. After all, the trend of fashion is changing too fast. Many international sports brands have noticed that the growth rate of sports fashion market is slowing down."

He said.

Author: Jie Yu Xing