Chinese brands to open new stores
27/03/2009
Chinese footwear brand Anta Group has said it will take advantage of falling retail rental prices and newly available capacity in outsource footwear manufacturing plants in China to open 1,900 new retail stores.
A thousand of the stores will carry all Anta Group shoes, while 600 of them will be devoted to higher-end fashion footwear and 300 of them to children’s shoes.
Anta Group president, Ding Shizhong, has predicted that sales of fashion and children’s shoes alone could reach almost $150 million a year by 2011. He also said he wanted overseas footwear brands to make their shoes available for sale in the new stores, arguing that “complementary brands” would help the retail initiative succeed.
Mr Ding also said that a downturn in orders from overseas footwear brands had left spare capacity in footwear production facilities in China and that Anta Group was preparing to take advantage of this to reduce to 40% the proportion of its output that it manufactures itself.
Another Chinese footwear brand, Belle International, has said it is preparing to spend $75 million on expanding its portfolio of 6,000 stores across mainland China. Chief executive, Sheng Baijiao, said shoes carrying the company’s Mirabel, Senda and Millie’s brands were selling well enough to justify an expansion of between 10% and 15%.
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