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Kong. It is clearly a company that is thinking big.
Quality of life
In the autumn of 2011, in an interim report on the
performance of the business, chairman Tan Yiu said that, in spite
of complexity in the Chinese economy, inflationary pressure and
a rising cost of living, the consumer retail market was “still
robust”. He pointed out that the urbanisation process is
continuing and that Chinese consumers’ disposable income and
consumption levels are going up. “Consumers’ demand for
higher quality of life contributed to the strong sales momentum
of fashion and lifestyle products,” Mr Tan said.
For the six months ended 30 June 2011, the group recorded
an increase of 24.6% in revenue and 38.2% in operating profit
compared to the same period in 2010 and immediately set
about investing some of the money in additional stores. The
company has admitted that the pace of growth for its network
of retail stores was faster than it had expected. In the first six
months of 2011, the Belle brand (just one of the ten owned by
the group) opened 100 new outlets. A key consideration is that
these 100 openings brought the brand coverage in 20 new
cities. “The core brands, as represented by the Belle brand,
showed no sign of slowing down after years of consistent
growth,” the company stated.
End-to-end Belle
Belle International was established in Shenzhen in 1991 and
in March 1992 produced its first pair of shoes. It is proud of
having a “complete business system” encompassing its own
manufacturing, branding and retailing, with a presence now in
around 300 cities across China. This applies to the ten different
brand names under which it sells the shoes it makes; in addition
to this, Belle distributes in the Chinese market shoes from
international footwear brands including Bata, Merrell, Geox,
Mephisto and Clarks. In the first half of 2011, distribution of
shoes from these brands constituted only 7.4% of the business.
Towards the end of 2011, it decided to stretch its business
system even further upstream in the supply chain by becoming
a partner in a new tannery venture in the Suzhou Economic
Zone in Jiangsu Province, to the north of Shanghai. A ceremony
to break the ground for the new Bailian Shangduo tannery took
place at the end of November. Belle’s partners in the venture are
Hong Kong Shangduo Leather and Xinxiang Leather Company.
They have said the new facility will be able to produce 50 million
square-metres of shoe upper leather per year.
World Footwear
also understands that Belle was one of the principal customer
organisations 2010 and 2011 to have urged other tanning
partners to increase, in some cases to double, their capacity for
producing leather for footwear for the domestic market.
“We are going to focus on developing our business in
mainland China for the foreseeable future,” Belle International
has said. “The China market holds enormous potential for
growth, and our core expertise and skills are concentrated on
the China market. We are committed to keeping up the
development of our own brands in the international
marketplace, but until we have adequate resources and skills we
do not plan to rush into direct sales and the retail business in
overseas countries.”
15
THOUSANDS OF NEW SHOE STORES IN CHINA
MARCH/APRIL 2012 | www.footwearbiz.com
ALL PHOTO CREDITS: BELLE INTERNATIONAL
BELLE STORES ACROSS CHINA
This map shows the distribution of the own-brand stores that
Belle International runs, under ten different brand names, across
mainland China. It dates from June 2011. Further rapid expansion
has taken place since then.
Belle International
footwear brands:
• Belle
• Staccato
• Teenmix
• Tata
• Senda
• Basto
• JipiJapa
• Millie’s
• Joy & Peace
• Mirabell