Anta in race against Li Ning

• Published 11 Jun 2009

Aggressive expansion into second and third-tier cities is supporting impressive revenue growth.

Anta Sports Products (2020:HKG) has its sights set firmly on overtaking domestic rival Li Ning. Its assault has begun with aggressive expansion into second and third-tier cities. In May this year, it opened its 6,000th store from 4,716 stores at the start of last year. It now has 6,116 stores, compared with Li Ning's 6900, and hopes to set up 500-700 new stores each year, Anta's chief executive officer Zheng Jie says. The company is also spending Rmb 100m ($14.6m, €10.6m, £9.2m) on research and development in 2009, 10 times more than over the last five years combined. And just recently it signed up an international consulting firm to rejig its corporate management.

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