According to Fashion Business Express, on December 3, Anta Sports Products Limited (02020.HK) announced a new personnel appointment. Xiao Yong was named Vice President of International Business in Anta's Professional Sports Group. He will manage the International Division of the Anta brand. He will report to Xu Yang, the CEO of Anta's Professional Sports Group.
Xiao Yong is a veteran in the apparel retail industry, with experience in managing and operating multiple international brands. In February 2023, Xiao Yong served as the CEO of Gap Greater China. Even earlier, Xiao Yong was the global CEO of Miss Sixty, a women's denim brand acquired by Trendy Group. She also worked for sports brands such as Nike, VF Corporation and Uniqlo.
Industry insiders believe that recruiting external talents with experience in the international market and cross-cultural organizations is one of the signs that Anta's main brand is accelerating its overseas expansion and is also a necessary move. On December 4, Times Finance contacted Anta Sports Products Limited regarding the reasons for recruiting Xiao Yong, her duty arrangements and the internationalization process of the Anta brand. The relevant personnel said, "There is no more information available for disclosure at present."
Once served as the head of Gap China
Xiao Yong was the first CEO appointed after Baozun E-Commerce acquired Gap China. In February 2023, Baozun E-Commerce bought Gap China. They started to manage Gap's business in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. It was at this time that Xiao Yong took office and became the CEO of Gap Greater China.
During her time at Gap, Xiao Yong was in charge of brand building and product innovation. She also managed channel operations and consumer experience. Additionally, she created new teams for the Gap brand in Greater China.
After taking office, Gap China made a series of adjustments centered around "brand upgrading". For example, it strengthened local design and supply chains, refreshed the brand's visual identity, closed a large number of inefficient stores and then restarted the store opening pace, and strived to reverse the situation where Gap previously drove business in the Chinese market through discounts.
In Gap's brand transformation, Xiao Yong emphasized the importance of implementation. "In the initial stage of a new company, leaders must re-sort out and demonstrate work standards and processes. If I don't participate in this process and just set abstract major directions, the subsequent implementation is likely to deviate."
The last time Xiao Yong appeared as a "Baozun employee" was this summer. On June 25, Hunter's first store in Southeast Asia opened in Singapore's Plaza Singapura. Qiu Wenbin, Chairman of Baozun Group, and Xiao Yong attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony together. Times Finance found that in the official tweet, Xiao Yong's title was changed to "CEO of Bao Boot Greater China", and the main business of Bao Boot is to operate the Hunter brand.
Tianyancha shows that on August 30, 2024, the legal representative of Gap (Shanghai) Commercial Co., Ltd. was also changed from Xiao Yong to Huang Yiming. However, as of December 4, Xiao Yong was still the legal representative and senior executive of Baozun Omni-channel Brand Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Bao Boot Commercial (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
On December 4, Times Finance contacted Baozun E-Commerce regarding Xiao Yong's departure and job transfers during her tenure. However, as of the time of publication, no reply had been received.
It is worth mentioning that although Xiao Yong's career at Baozun was short, she had worked for Trendy Group, the parent company of Ochirly, for more than 9 years. Since 2013, Xiao Yong had started to take over Miss Sixty, an Italian women's denim brand acquired by Trendy Group.
At that time, since Miss Sixty retained its Italian design, development and supply chain teams, Xiao Yong had to stay in Italy for more than 3 months every year. Xiao Yong also accumulated rich experience in cross-cultural team management during this period. According to the 21st Century Business Review, from 2013 to 2021, Miss Sixty had an annual compound growth rate of about 30% in the Chinese market.
Recruiting talents with high salaries
Times Finance learned that Southeast Asia, where Hunter stores are located, is an overseas market that Anta Sports Products Limited has been vigorously exploring in recent years.
Anta Sports' interim report for 2024 pointed out that Anta will improve its overseas market layout, focus on Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and so on, and accelerate its expansion. Xu Yang once said: "When Chinese sports brands go global, they must forget all their halos in China. They must redefine themselves in overseas markets, be oriented towards global consumers, meet their needs and integrate into their lives."
Expanding overseas business is one of Xu Yang's key tasks. Since Xu Yang took office, the overseas pace of the Anta brand has significantly accelerated.
In early 2023, Xu Yang served as the CEO of Anta. In July of the same year, Xu Yang led the signing of NBA basketball star Kyrie Irving. In March this year, the co-branded products of the first generation of Kyrie Irving were launched in a pop-up way in trendy buyer stores in Dallas, New York and other places in the United States. In September, the first generation of Kyrie Irving entered Foot Locker, the world's largest sports footwear and apparel retailer, with its sales network mainly in the United States market and further radiating to markets such as Canada and the UK.
Just recently, Xu Yang clearly revealed that Anta plans to open more than one directly-operated brand store in the United States in 2025, and the locations may be in Beverly Hills in Los Angeles and Fifth Avenue in New York.
As the base camp of Nike and an important stronghold for international sports giants such as Adidas, the United States is undoubtedly a tough nut to crack for the Chinese brand Anta. And the establishment of directly-operated stores is more like a frontal "declaration of war" by Anta against them. The importance of Anta gaining a firm foothold in the United States for the brand's successful entry into the global market is self-evident.
However, as the brand's layout in overseas markets becomes wider and wider, Anta urgently needs more professional talents with international vision and experience. The internal organizational composition of the Anta brand is also quietly changing. Besides poaching high-level management talents, Anta also continues to recruit grassroots talents that meet the brand's global development needs.
Source of the picture: Screenshot of the recruitment platform
The recruitment page of Anta Sports Products Limited shows they are hiring for many positions. They are looking for overseas customs managers, retail graphic planners, logistics managers, merchandisers, retail trainers, retail display executors, and senior accountants. They need accountants with experience in international markets and knowledge of US accounting. Among them, the annual salary range for the head of retail management in the Middle East region is 1.2 million yuan to 1.65 million yuan.
In the journey of brand internationalization, Anta is reconstructing itself.
