Nike China To Focus Major Channels And Free The Minor

Source from CNGA Date: 22/06/2009

Nike has signed with Chinese Football Association a 10-year sponsorship contract, offering all the uniform for the teams of Chinese Football Association Super League (CSL) in the coming 10 years, including the footballs and clothes for referees and match officials.

Fans are more or less surprised at the big input in Chinese football by Nike. But what they don＇t know is that this move is not the only large investment by Nike in China.

In February this year, Nike started in Jiangsu to build Nike China Logistics Centre, which will become Nike＇s largest logistics centre in Asia. In March, Nike announced to close 4 factories, among which is Nike＇s only wholly owned shoes factory in Chinese mainland. And what＇s more important is that the company＇s channels are experiencing a new wave of restructuring. Nike has reportedly concentrated the selling operation to large-scale franchisers due to the underperforming of some small distributors.

Nike is now making its business in Chinese market more clear. The reasons behind are the mounting importance of Chinese market in Nike＇s global network. Not long ago, Nike published the third quarter report in fiscal 2008, showing the company had a sales income of US$4.4 billion, down 2% compared with last year. But, the Asia-Pacific region including China had sales revenue of 806 million US dollars, a year-on-year 8%.