ANTA revenue on upswing buoyed by Fila segment's recovery

ANTA Sports has seen revenue and net profits increase, boosted by the recovery of its high-end Fila brand, despite slower growth from its ANTA brand year-on-year, according to the group's interim results.

The company showed that its revenue for the first half of the year increased by 14.2 percent year-on-year to 29.65 billion yuan ($4.06 billion), doubling the revenue compared with the same period of 2019, and continuing to increase its market share. The group's operating profit margin increased by 3.4 percentage points year-on-year to 25.7 percent.

The report has shown Fila's return to growth as the segment's revenue grew by 13.5 percent year-on-year to 12.23 billion yuan.

In 2022, Fila, which takes up 40 percent of the group's revenue, encountered a decline in revenue and operating profits.

In the first half of 2023, the report said that by focusing on fragmented categories such as golf, tennis and skiing, closing underperforming stores and expanding its network at high-end commercial developments, Fila's operating profit margin climbed 7.2 percentage points to 29.7 percent in the first six months, compared with the same period last year.

However, the group's main brand ANTA has seen slower growth in revenue and operating profits due to the transitional period of implementing its direct-to-consumer business model, which has added rents and labor costs, said the report.

The ANTA segment revenue grew by 6.1 percent year-on-year to 14.17 billion yuan in the first half of the year compared to that of a year ago.

In the first half of 2022, the ANTA brand grew 26.3 percent to 13.3 billion yuan in revenue. The year-on-year operating profit margin of ANTA dropped to 21 percent in the first half of 2023 from 22 percent in the same period in 2022.

The group's outdoor brands Descente and Kolon Sport sustained a rapid upswing, with the total revenue of all other brands surging 77.6 percent year-on-year to 3.25 billion yuan.

Amer Sports Holding continued to show strong growth with revenue increasing by 37.2 percent to 13.27 billion yuan year-on-year.

Lai Shixian, co-CEO of ANTA Sports, said, "Moving into the second half of the year ... we maintain an optimistic outlook about the consumption prospects of the sportswear sector."