Anta Sports Products Ltd, China’s largest maker of athletic shoes, said sales may grow by at least 15 percent this year as it opens more stores.
The Chinese shoemaker’s net income last year rose 40 percent to CNY1.25 billion (USD183.1 million), and sales gained 27 percent to CNY5.87 billion.
Same-store sales, a measure that strips out the effect of recently opened outlets, will probably accelerate this year after growing by between 5 percent and 10 percent in 2009, James Zheng, Anta’s executive director, said on 24 February. Anta plans to increase its outlets by 8.5 percent to 7,200 this year, Claudia Lo, vice president for investor relations, has said.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, CFO Paul Ling said 10,000 stores in China is an achievable target. Anta may open outlets in overseas markets in the next three years as mainland China becomes "saturated", starting possibly in Singapore and Southeast Asia, he said.