"Anta's Winning Strategy: Multi-Brand Positioning, Retail Operations, and Global Collaboration"

How is Anta’s multi-brand strategy precisely positioned to segment the market?

In the context of an industry under pressure, the leading sports brand Anta has delivered a remarkable performance report. According to the financial report, Anta Group’s revenue is expected to increase by 13.3% year-on-year to RMB 80.219 billion in 2025, maintaining its position as the top player in the Chinese market for four consecutive years and ranking among the top three globally. If we include its subsidiary Amer Sports, the total revenue of Anta’s brands in 2025 is approximately RMB 127.8 billion.

During this period, the revenue gap between Anta Group and Nike China expanded to RMB 38 billion, with Anta Group’s annual revenue approaching twice that of Nike China.

Maintaining high-quality growth on such a large scale is not easy. Over the past year, Anta Group’s core profit metrics exceeded market expectations, further highlighting the advantages of its multi-brand strategy. While the main brand Anta and FILA showed steady growth, brands like Descente and Kolon quietly emerged; with actions such as the acquisition of Jack Wolfskin and investment in Puma, Anta’s globalization strategy has also entered a new stage of development. A closer look at this financial report reveals Anta’s brand operation capabilities, as well as the challenges it faces in terms of future growth and resource allocation.

Revenue growth of 13% to RMB 80.2 billion, Anta leads the industry for four consecutive years with a “brand + retail” model.

On the basis of a nearly RMB 80 billion total revenue in 2024, Anta Group achieved a rare new high in revenue. During the reporting period, the group’s operating profit increased by 13.3% year-on-year to RMB 80.219 billion, with free cash flow of RMB 16.106 billion; by the end of 2025, the group’s net cash remained healthy at approximately RMB 31.719 billion, with overall performance and profit metrics exceeding market expectations. Excluding Amer Sports, Anta Group’s market share in the Chinese sports footwear and apparel market increased to 21.8%—this means that for every five pieces of sports equipment purchased by Chinese consumers, one comes from Anta.

In horizontal comparison, this performance is outstanding. The industry is currently in a mild recovery phase—according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the retail sales of clothing, footwear, hats, and textile goods above designated size increased by 3.2% year-on-year from January to December 2025. At the same time, the entire sports footwear and apparel market is facing a reshaping of the landscape and brand differentiation.

Among brands of similar scale, Anta Group is almost the only company that has shown long-term steady growth. Over the past five years, its total revenue has grown from RMB 49.33 billion in 2021 to RMB 80.219 billion in 2025, with an annual compound growth rate of 12.93%. In total, Anta has maintained positive growth for twelve consecutive years, ranking first in revenue in the Chinese market for four consecutive years.

Taking the international giant Nike as an example, since 2022, its performance in China has faced continuous setbacks, with revenue in fiscal year 2025 (ending May 31, 2025) declining to USD 6.586 billion. Adidas experienced a dramatic drop in revenue in 2022, followed by a slow recovery phase, and is still in the process of recovering. The challenges faced by these two traditional giants in China come partly from the impact of local brands and emerging international brands, and partly due to changes in the consumer environment.

In the face of diverse, ever-changing, and increasingly segmented consumer demand, a single brand often struggles to resist risks and capture the entire market—this is also the core advantage that allows Anta to navigate through cycles and maintain growth, as evidenced by its multi-brand operational results reflected in the latest financial report.

By segment, the main brand and FILA remain the two major income pillars, contributing revenues of RMB 34.754 billion (up 3.7% year-on-year) and RMB 28.469 billion (up 6.9% year-on-year), respectively. These two brands account for over 78% of Anta Group’s revenue, while the explosive growth of other brand segments is also noteworthy. Brands like Descente and Kolon saw their annual retail amounts grow rapidly by 59.2% year-on-year to RMB 16.996 billion, with operating profit increasing by 55.3% to RMB 4.736 billion; among them, Descente’s revenue first surpassed RMB 10 billion, becoming the third brand in Anta Group to reach the billion yuan level.

Looking at the past year’s performance as a whole, Anta’s multi-brand matrix is gradually entering a mature collaborative period.

Guo Haiyan, Managing Director of the Research Department of CICC, believes that the changes in the consumption trend of sports footwear and apparel in 2025 are mainly reflected in structural diversification and fashionable design. According to data from Euromonitor, the industry concentration will continue to decline in 2025, with brands in niche segments continuing to outperform the industry, giving group enterprises with differentiated multi-brands a competitive advantage. Therefore, in the long run, companies with strong innovation capabilities and profit models are more likely to stand out. Among them, the DTC-centric operational model can provide higher efficiency through more direct consumer insights and faster response times; while multi-brand operations can showcase flexible resource integration and channel resource sharing, efficiently reaching consumers and enhancing efficiency.

Over the years, Anta has continuously promoted DTC transformation, securing a substantial amount of channel resources from distributors located in key business districts, which has built a solid competitive barrier for its brands. The financial report shows that by 2025, Anta Group’s overall gross profit margin is expected to be approximately 62%, higher than that of several leading competitors such as Nike, Adidas, and Lululemon, which range from 40% to 56%.

What sells is what’s popular? The experience is replicable, and Anta is recreating the next FILA and Arc’teryx.

When did Anta firmly establish its multi-brand development strategy? In 2009, the industry was in the midst of a serious inventory crisis; at the same time, the consumer market was gradually transitioning from the channel era to the brand era. Anta acquired the struggling Italian sports brand FILA from Belle Group for RMB 332 million, promoting its brand revitalization and direct sales transformation. FILA capitalized on the rising trend of sports leisure and aimed at the high-end sports fashion market, forming differentiated competition with brands like Nike and Adidas. In the following five years, FILA turned its losses into profits and gradually became one of Anta Group’s growth engines. From 2015 to 2025, its revenue skyrocketed from RMB 1.75 billion to nearly RMB 30 billion.

After successfully “revamping” FILA, Anta embarked on a development path of constructing a multi-brand matrix through mergers and acquisitions. To date, Anta has established leading advantages in multiple different segments and covers various areas including professional sports, fashion sports, trendy sports, and outdoor sports.

In recent years, there has been much discussion suggesting “Anta acquires whatever segment is hot.” In fact, Anta’s acquisitions are not a reckless spending spree but rather a forward-looking strategic layout. Anta recognized the trend of consumer differentiation and the rise of niche sports early on, leading it to head the acquisition of Amer Sports in 2019. The previous year, Amer Sports reported a net loss of EUR 120 million. As everyone knows, the “sport-luxury” concept emerged, Arc’teryx became wildly popular, and Amer’s global business turned profitable and entered a phase of rapid growth.

Throughout the process of multi-brand acquisition and operation, Anta has gradually summarized a set of core experiences. For example, it typically focuses on two types of opportunities: one is to acquire companies/brands that align with Anta’s focus on the sports footwear and apparel industry, forming differentiation and possessing brand value; the other is to invest in or cooperate with emerging brands with high growth potential at an early stage. These brands may face challenges such as aging channels and resource limitations, while Anta possesses a strong DTC channel network and retail operational capabilities, adept at promoting rapid growth for brands in niche segments through differentiated positioning and a “brand + retail” model.

With this replicable approach, Anta is in the process of recreating the next FILA and Arc’teryx.

Descente and Kolon are becoming the group’s third growth engine, driving the total revenue of “all other brands” from RMB 2.313 billion to RMB 16.996 billion from 2020 to 2025, representing a growth of over 500%. Currently, both Descente and Kolon have established flagship stores in key commercial districts, reaching core consumer groups. The former focuses on professional elite sports scenes for skiing, golf, and triathlons, while the latter consolidates the apparel market and develops professional products such as hiking shoes and trail running shoes. Amer Sports has also produced its second “Arc’teryx.” In 2025, Salomon’s sales exceeded USD 2 billion (RMB 13.688 billion) for the first time.

“World Anta” has taken a key step, with Puma joining and North America being established.

In January of this year, Anta Group announced its acquisition of nearly 30% of Puma’s shares, mentioning in the announcement that this acquisition is expected to further enhance its position and brand awareness in the global sports market, thereby strengthening its international competitiveness.

In fact, since acquiring FILA in 2009, Anta has embarked on a globalization journey. Its development path shows a relatively clear series of stages—the first stage is “doing well with international brands in China,” and from FILA, Arc’teryx to Descente and Salomon, Anta has repeatedly proven its ability to localize and replicate international brands.

The second stage is “operating international brands in the international market,” with the acquisition of Amer Sports being a key battle in this phase. In 2025, all business segments, regions, and channels of Amer Sports achieved double-digit growth. Notably, the successful experience of Amer Sports in Greater China is gradually being expanded globally. These experiences can also be replicated for international brands such as Jack Wolfskin and Puma. For example, Puma, a globally recognized brand established in 1948, once held a long-standing position within the industry’s top three in revenue. In recent years, Puma’s performance has faced considerable pressure, with a net loss of approximately EUR 644 million in 2025.

From Anta’s historical acquisition and operational track record, Puma’s future is promising. Leveraging Anta’s capabilities in multi-brand collaborative management, multi-brand retail operations, and globalization and resource integration, Puma’s growth potential is expected to be activated. Moreover, Puma’s mature channels in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Latin America can directly provide a launchpad for Anta’s brands seeking to expand overseas, reducing the time and capital investment needed for establishing channels.

For Anta, this is one of the resources it currently needs most in its stage of “operating Anta brands in the international market.” In 2025, Anta’s brand will initiate a “thousand-store plan” in Southeast Asia, including single-brand stores, multi-brand wholesale, and consignment outlets, with the regional “bridgehead” strategy beginning to take shape. In February of this year, Anta’s first flagship store in North America opened in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. In this high-end business district where luxury brands and sports giants gather, “World Anta” has taken a key step forward. It is reported that this overseas store will synchronize with the domestic full line of core products, such as the PG7 cushioning running shoes and C202 racing running shoes. A set of data reflects the market recognition of the aforementioned products—by 2025, the total sales of Anta’s self-developed PG7 running shoes exceeded 4 million pairs, while annual sales of the “C family” professional running shoes surpassed 1.2 million pairs.

Ding Shizhong, Chairman of Anta Group’s Board, has stated: “Anta Group’s multi-brand strategy focuses on long-term layout, ‘buy well, manage well, and operate strongly’ serves as the foundation for solidifying brand positioning, enhancing operational quality, and increasing brand value. The unique business model of ‘brand + retail’ that the group has developed, along with its three core competitive advantages in brand, retail, and global resource integration, allows each brand to fully unleash its value and potential. Over the past 35 years, Anta Group has navigated through multiple rounds of industry fluctuations and consumer cycles. We are confident in strengthening technological innovation, maintaining resilience, health, and vitality, and establishing Anta as a global brand based on the Chinese market.”

From the financial performance, it is evident that Anta Group has indeed demonstrated its cyclical resilience through several years of steady growth, forming a replicable mature approach to multi-brand operations. However, Anta’s real challenges may begin beyond the RMB 100 billion mark. How to balance multi-brand resources while maintaining profitability and organizational efficiency during ongoing expansion will determine whether this Chinese sports leader can truly secure a place among the global top tier.