Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong, March 22, Li Ning Co., Ltd. released its performance report for fiscal year 2018 on the 22nd. The report shows that the company’s operating income in 2018 reached 10.511 billion yuan, up 18% year on year. For the first time, Li Ning, the executive chairman and acting chief executive officer of the company, said that the company’s overall development will have a qualitative improvement in the next three years.
According to the management of Li Ning Company, in 2018, the profitability of the company was further enhanced and the operating efficiency was continuously improved. During the year, the group’s revenue reached 10.511 billion yuan, up from 2017. Gross profit rose 21.0% to 5.053 billion yuan from 4.176 billion yuan in 2017. The overall gross profit rate of the group improved to 48.1 (2017: 47.1%), mainly due to the continuous increase in the proportion of e-commerce channel business with higher gross profit rate, the increase in sales discounts of self-operated channels, the proportion of new product sales has increased, etc. During the year, operating profit was 0.777 billion yuan, up from 0.446 billion yuan in 2017. Equity holders should account for 0.715 billion yuan of profit, up 38.8% from 0.515 billion yuan in 2017, while equity holders should account for 6.8% of profit (2017: 5.8%). The return rate of equity holders should be 13.1 percent (2017: 11.4 percent).
Within the year, the group adopted the development strategy of “single brand, multi-category and multi-channel” to operate multi-sports categories under the core main brand of “Li Ning, make each category form its own business platform. At the same time, make full use of the synergy effect in products, channels, retail operations, supply chain management and other aspects to create and consolidate Li Ning experience value.
In terms of products, the group continues to emphasize the attributes of professional sports, while paying attention to the research of sports and the investment in the research and design of professional products, constantly bringing forth new ideas for athletes and sports enthusiasts; the strong creativity also enables Li Ning brand to break through the tradition and organically integrate professional sports with fashion trends and creative culture to provide consumers with more consumption choices and more accurate consumption experiences. During the year, the group further expanded consumer groups through its appearance at international fashion week and cross-border joint cooperation to enhance brand strength and product strength.
According to the reporter, Li Ning Company had reached a revenue of 9.778 billion yuan in 2010, but later experienced difficulties, valleys and adjustments. After finally hitting the bottom and rebounding through the 10 billion mark, Li Ning said, “We are brand-oriented, sports-oriented, passionate, constantly creating and participating in the competition. I believe that if our current layout and strategy are correct, our team has the ability to climb higher peaks. It should be said that after the efforts of the past three years, we have laid some foundations. I believe that 2019 and 2020 will be our very healthy growth stages, there will be a qualitative improvement in the development of the whole company in the next three years.”
Li Ning also introduced: “Next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games, as partners and sponsors of China badminton team, table tennis team, shooting team and diving team, we are working closely with the national team and athletes, put some collected data into the research and development of shoes, rackets, lines and so on that we really do now. I hope our products can help them achieve good results in the competition.”