ANTA Sports Products Limited (2020) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Investors, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. After 3 years of the pandemic, we at last can meet you all during this on-site physical meeting. Welcome to ANTA's 2022 Annual Results Presentation. Let me introduce to you our management in attendance. Chairman, Mr. Ding Shizhong; Executive Director and joint CEO, Mr. Lai Shixian; Executive Director and CEO, Mr. Wu Yonghua; Executive Director, Mr. Zheng Jie; and Executive Director cum CFO, Mr. Li Mingwei. In today's investor presentation, our CFO, Mr. Bi, will go through our 2022 financial results. And then Mr. Lai will present a business review, future development and our ESG performance. For our Q&A session, our Chairman and members of the management will answer your questions. So first of all, we are going to play a corporate video on work done in 2022. Please enjoy. [Presentation]

Now let's invite Mr. Bi to go through the 2022 annual financial performance. He joined ANTA in 2007. He has been working in very important positions in terms of finance and other areas. This is the first time that he is meeting with all of you as CFO. Mr. Bi, please.

Investors, good afternoon. Today is the first time I am meeting with you. I'm very honored to have this opportunity to see you all here face-to-face in Hong Kong. Now I'm going to present to you our major financial performance in 2022. In 2022, we continue our Single-Focus Multi-Brand globalization strategy. So we are consumer-driven. For the whole year, we achieved quite good results. If you look at our revenue in 2022, revenue for the first time exceeded RMB 50 billion. So we're at RMB 53.6 billion, up 9%. For ANTA brand, because of our marketing success in Winter Olympics and also our Lead to Win project, we actually are based on performance sports, and we are developing upward. Revenue was at RMB 7.55 billion FILA more or less the same as last year, RMB 21.5 billion. For DESCENTE and KOLON, these are 2 smaller brands. The growth is very strong. Together, they grew 26%. In 2022, comparing with '21, we know that the pandemic was even more severe, however, our gross profit margin and operating profit margin came down by about 1.4 percentage points year-on-year. So you can see the results from our financial statements. For Amer Sports, for the first time in 2022, it achieved positive profit contribution of RMB 28 million. Amer Sports revenue was up 22 percentage points. Our cash generation capability is strong. By 30th November, we have RMB 27.7 billion operating cash flow more than RMB 12 billion. Deducting our liabilities we have net cash of RMB 12.5 billion. Comparing with 2021, we increased that by RMB 3.1 billion. So these are the major data of our group's operation. So with our revenue of RMB 53.7 billion, we are up 9%. This is because ANTA brand grew 15.5% FILA, more or less the same as the previous year for other brands, up 26%. Last year, as you know, because of the pandemic, we closed many stores. We expanded our e-commerce and online business, including our official website business. In 2022, online growth exceeded 30%. And now for online business, its share is 34% of the total. For ANTA brand, in these 2 years, we promoted DTC transformation. In 2022, we increased DTC's share. Now DTC's share of total business is 50%, e-commerce 35%. The remaining 15% is traditional wholesale business. In the future, for DTC -- we will increase our DTC's overall operation capability. Gross profit margin. Last year for ANTA brand, because of the share of DTC has increased, GP margin rose by 1.4 percentage points besides for our high-end product lines, they are more and more well received by Chinese consumers. This is about ANTA brand for FILA. Gross profit margin came down by 4 percentage points. This is mainly because in the second half of 2022 we actually reduced and cleared some of the off-season inventory. After this work in 2022 second half and also in early 2023 there was over -- well, we exceeded our target. Basically, our inventory was controllable as of the end of December. FILA inventory came down by double digits. So for FILA, we're able to reduce inventory. So this year, we have laid a good foundation for high-quality growth for FILA this year. Operating profit margin. In 2022, operating profit margin was 20.9%. In the second half of the year, operating profit margin was slightly higher than last year. So in the second half of the year, we actually were able to control operating efficiency. We adhere to longtermism and long-term high-quality growth. Our group attaches much importance to our overall profitability and operating standard. We have our own model to manage various operating metrics of our multiple brands. So we say we are adopting dynamic management. So that means we will do thorough analysis of our monthly and quarterly internal operating data and the market environment and online/offline competition relationship. After doing such analysis, then when we buy our products and also on various operating indicators, we will make adjustments in a dynamic way. After the end of the pandemic, with our dynamic management or our standards and model in 2023, we will be able to perform better in terms of profitability when compared to 2022. Operating expenses. A&P operating ratio came down 2.1 percentage points. This is because for ANTA brand in 2021, that was Beijing Winter Olympics and Tokyo Olympics in 2022. The marketing expenses on Olympic were reduced. For R&D costs, 2.4%. All along, our group continued to invest in R&D in order to enhance the technological competence and strength of our products. I said just now that for our JV, in 2022, there was revenue growth by 22%. And for the first time in '22 we achieved profit. So for Amer Sports, basically, this is the first time that we are making a profit, and we believe that in 2023, we will have a satisfactory performance. Management of working capital. Average inventory turnover days increased 11 days to 138 days. Let me explain. Basically, this is because of bigger share of DTC. So online business grew faster or more than off-line business for this structural change as a result, the turnover days increased for FILA brand turnover days is coming down. And then for average accounts or trade receivables turnover days down 5 days and average trade payables turnover days down 3 days. So these are within our estimates. Cash flow. Our operating cash flow, RMB 12 billion, an increase year-on-year. As of the end of 2022, we have RMB 27.7 billion cash, net cash of RMB 15.5 billion, an increase of RMB 3.6 billion from last year. So for our cash position, we have strong cash generation capability. So that is basically about our financial performance. That's all from me. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Bi for your sharing. Now let's invite Mr. Lai to do a business review with us.

Investors, long time no see. Apart from the previous 3 years under the pandemic, every year, we meet each other twice a year. However, well, we have not come over for 3 years already because of the pandemic. Just now Mr. Bi went through our financial information. Now I'm going to talk about last year's market and business review. In 2022, the pandemic was very volatile. Overall speaking, the economy in China was quite depressed. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2022 total retail sales of consumer products did not grow. There is some decline for apparel, footwear and textiles, there is a bigger decline of 6.5 percentage points. Consumer confidence in November 2022 reached the lowest point in history. GDP growth in 2022 was only 3%. It is lower than the 5.5% projection made at the beginning of the year. In face of uncertainty in macro economy, we adopted flexible dynamic management approach to face up to changes in the market. We maintain healthy liquidity in order to be resilient. So when there is the need, we will put in place our contingency plan and make good preparations. In 2022, we realized that there are some new changes in the Chinese consumer markets. First of all, for overall sportswear industry, there is still growth amidst stability. Even though retail sales was -- or experienced negative growth for sportswear industry, there is still slight growth. And there is new opportunity and new verticals coming up. For example, camping equipment and skiing equipment, they achieved fast growth. Number three, integrated e-commerce growth slowed down and the platforms become more fragmented or decentralized. Douyin and other live streaming e-commerce companies have snatched market share successfully. But for integrated e-commerce, there is only slow growth. And then for the sportswear industry, the 2 strongest -- traditional strongest players have weakened in terms of trend. Outdoor market overall is good. And then for young people, they have higher and higher affiliation or affinity in relation to domestic brands. And outdoor market is growing faster than overall sportswear industry. So for our company with multi-brands, there are very good opportunities for us. In 2021, upon the 30th anniversary of our company, we introduced the single-focused, multi-brand globalization 10-year strategy. So we want to become a world-leading multi-sportswear -- multi-brand sportswear group. In 2022, on 4 dimensions, we have achieved good results in terms of brand value, technological innovation, social responsibility and staff engagement. On brand value, well, the Winter Olympic had enhanced our brand strength greatly. And for FILA, it has also grown faster among the main international competitors and for technological innovation, we are enhancing our digitalization. In terms of social responsibility, we have set up a ESG department. And then we have clear goal, 5-year goal and then for staff enhancement, we have reached our key position planning and also we have prepared a very intense pipeline or internal pipeline for talent development. Now a review of various brands. For ANTA brand we are actually focusing on performance bots, and we want our brand to develop upward. So we continue to implement our Lead to Win program. For ANTA Adults, well, it is led by Olympic technology, and we are enhancing our brand value in terms of brand mind share. We have matched the #1 position in terms of affiliated brands or associated brands with Olympic. And for Performance Sports products, well Olympic Performance Sports products account for 20% of sell-through and then for our nitrogen technology products, they account for 10%. And for channel upgrading, we have created 6 flagship stores and high end or high-spending consumers account for higher share up to 34%. For ANTA KIDS, we want to be professional kids-wear #1 product, and we have achieved good development or improvement in terms of our performance sports products for kids. So this includes the use of bullet technology and Gore-Tex Infinium, in skiing products. And among the total number of 9,603 ANTA and ANTA KIDS stores, there are 7,200 adopting the DTC mode, 51% are directly operated by us, 49% are operated by franchisees according to ANTA's operating standards. For FILA brand, our strategy is to create mind share, and we want to make sure that we are fashionable and trendy. Now in 2022, we continue to be top in branding, high-quality products as well as channel. For brand, in footwear segment, our voice among fashionable people has reached 20%. So for footwear, sell-through grew 10% year-on-year. So its share of our total revenue went up for adults and kid professional performance sports apparel, they account for 30%. So as a result, FILA's product structure based on performance sports is enhanced for channels, we opened a number of high-end #1 stores and other high-end stores. And we have created very good image for our brand and output is very satisfactory. For live streaming e-commerce, it is doing well. Sell-through increased 30%. For FILA KIDS, we insisted on a high-end positioning. So we continue to cultivate in tennis, skiing, running and other outdoor sports. So the share of footwear and performance sports has been enhanced. For FILA Fusion, we are creating a new young sportive lifestyle and also street sports mindset. Within the year, for FILA fusion, well, it has reached a double-digit growth in sell-through. So it is the best-performing brands. For 2022, I think you realize that we have made breakthrough developments for our outdoor market. So for DESCENTE and KOLON, they benefit from this development and trend. For DESCENTE, it is a brand on high-end, high-quality achievements. So for skiing mindshare, we have made good achievements already. The growth exceeded 60% for our ski outfit and then for our flagship stores, they are very diversified and high in productivity. For shop productivity over 30 million, there are 19 and average store efficiency reached 1.25 million. DESCENTE golf is a new growth driver. Sell-through growth exceeded 50%. For KOLON sports, the goal is to become an outdoor lifestyle brand, which many people look forward to. And in 2022, KOLON Sport is the brand with the best ability in terms of growth. So right now, we are reinforcing its outdoor mind share. At the same time, we want to create a GTX 3 in 1 Polo series as well. In the past 3 years, KOLON has gone through a channel adjustment and upgrading. Many stores have already achieved a turnaround. For distribution network management, even though we experienced the pandemic, for our different brands in terms of new image and upgrading and channel breakthrough, we have not stopped our work. We continued our efforts. High-quality development and store experience are our focus. So our retail strategy is being enhanced with focus on the stores. There are 6,924 ANTA stores and 2,679 ANTA KIDS stores. So there is an increase. Under the pandemic, in many cities, many stores were closed, but still we are able to maintain store efficiency of 250,000. And FILA, at the end of December, there were 1,984 stores. There is a slight decrease because that was a year of minor adjustment for FILA and some low-efficiency stores were closed, and this is because of the pandemic. This year at the beginning, FILA's performance is better than expectation. So I think for FILA, after 1 to 2 years of adjustment, we are back to a high-growth track. In Tier 1, 2 cities under the pandemic, FILA was greatly affected. But after recovery from the pandemic, I think we have seen is explosive growth. And then online business or e-commerce and digitalization. E-commerce revenue within the year accounted for 34.3% comparing with last year, there is 6 percentage points increase. If you look at absolute value on a year-on-year basis, there is growth of 30.7%. We strengthened the official websites operation and content creation of all brands, and we kept on enhancing consumer experience for various brands. [indiscernible] and our official website, business growth is particularly fast. We will continue to pay attention to development on these platforms. We enhanced store marketing, especially during lockdown. So by means of store live streaming and broadcast, we are moving activities from offline to online. And then we also developed our private domain traffic. During Double 11 our various brands on different platforms achieved leading positions in the industry in terms of sales results. Supply chain platform. During the pandemic, we increased and improved our system processing capability in terms of fast feedback of products and to face up to uncertainty. And then we brought in and prepared some high-end material suppliers and manufacturers. So in terms of material quality upgrading, we're able to maintain our performance price ratio. Together with digitalization and automation of the supply chain, we are accelerating our work here, so that overall effectiveness can be enhanced. So for ANTA, self-produced footwear over apparel ratio is 21.1% and 9.6%. For FILA, self-produced apparel and footwear share, 8.4% and 3.8%, respectively. For ESG, it is an important work for the future. There should be 1 more page before this, right? Okay. For ESG, let me talk about our future development. This year, we kept on deepening and reinforcing our ESG philosophies and policies. We keep on promoting our sustainable development. First of all, for our self-owned operating facilities, we have put in place energy conservation plan. At the same time, we convinced suppliers to use renewable energy. Besides, in terms of our innovation capability of sustainable environment-friendly materials, we enhanced our carbon footprint management and chemicals management. And then we built our ESG governance structure. So we built our ESG risk based or risk bank building and enhance our ESG risk response and prevention mechanism. We are trying to make our Board of Directors more diverse, so that we can continue to lead in terms of corporate governance and drive high-quality development. For our suppliers, they have not got any important noncompliance issues. We continue to be people oriented in terms of staff welfare so that we can continue to be very positive in terms of social development. For ESG, our effort is well recognized by society on different ratings, our score is being enhanced. And I think we are leading among different enterprises, similar enterprises globally. So that's all from me. There is 1 more page, outlook or prospects. So I guess you know a lot about our future plan. This year, in 2023, we have had an internal meeting, so certainty is quite high. As Mr. Ding or Chairman Ding said, this year's certainty is higher comparing with past years, we are more confident and we are more motivated to improve our work. For our group, basically, we have 3 must-win battles. First, our upgrade and breakthrough of ANTA and number two, high-quality growth of FILA, number three, enhancement of organizational structure and human resources. For ANTA brand, we'll continue to optimize existing product portfolio and expand new product offerings, and we will enhance our product matrix. On one hand, we will continue to improve our differentiation and also product categories with high performance price ratio. So that's our leading position in the mass market can be reinforced. At the same time, we will upgrade our product matrix in terms of performance sports and high-end performance sports. In terms of categories, running shoes and basketball shoes will form a complete product matrix. For FILA, our principle is to be highly effective and high in quality, and we want to achieve healthy growth. So we will focus on golf, tennis and running. So these sort of elegant sports, and we will combine them with the fashion elements. And we will also integrate our products with artistic sports. We have a spokesperson or ambassador matrix. So in 4 main areas of apparel and footwear, we will continue to drive upward development of our brand. For outdoor sports brand, it is also important for us. We will seize the major opportunities and also capture niche sports and other diversified new scenarios. So that we can make DESCENTE and KOLON sports better and stronger. For Amer Sports, it will continue to strengthen our business in China, North America and Europe. And then our goal is to be leading in the world and our goal is to have 4, 5, EUR 1 billion. I think very soon, we can achieve that. So we want to be a globally leading multi-brand sportswear group. That's our vision. And we will ensure a healthy development of our multiple brands in terms of brand value, technological innovation, social responsibility and staff engagement, we want to be the benchmark for the industry. Thank you very much.