Four years ago, former Chinese gymnast Li Ning flew into Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium to ignite the Olympic flame. Now his company is taking a torch to its own inventory.
四年前，中国前体操运动员李宁飞进北京国家体育场"鸟巢"，点燃了奥运圣火。现在，他的公司正准备一把火点燃自己的存货。
With retail sales in China clocking close to 15% annual growth, there's plenty for consumer goods companies to play for. But sportswear retailer Li Ning has been losing out, with profits declining steadily. Earnings fell from 582 million yuan ($93 million) in the first half of 2010 to just 44 million yuan in the same period this year.
中国零售额年度增幅接近15%，消费产品公司有很大的发挥空间。但运动服饰零售商李宁公司却节节失利，利润稳步下滑。该公司2010年上半年收入人民币5.82亿元，而今年同期则降至人民币4,400万元。
The problem for Li Ning and domestic rivals like Anta: massive overproduction in anticipation of demand that never arrived. That left retail channels stuffed with unsold inventory, forcing discounted sales and making it more difficult to get new products to consumers. It tarnished Li Ning's brand too, and helped push China's sports fans into the arms of Nike and Adidas.
李宁以及安踏这类国内竞争者面临的问题是，由于预期中的需求从未实现而出现大规模的生产过剩。这导致零售渠道充斥着卖不出去的存货，迫使商家打折销售，从而也就更难以向顾客推出新产品。这种做法也损害了李宁的品牌，将中国的运动爱好者推向了耐克(Nike)和阿迪达斯(Adidas)的怀抱。
he company, which took a steroid shot of capital from private-equity firm TPG earlier this year, says it will vault out of these difficulties with a 1.4 billion yuan-1.8 billion yuan plan that includes clearing inventory, closing down or relocating some stores and restructuring accounts receivable.
私募股权公司TPG今年早些时候的注资无疑是给李宁公司的一剂强心针。李宁公司说，将拿出规模在人民币14亿元至18亿元的计划，克服上述困难，计划包括清空库存、关闭或迁移部分门店并重组应收账款。
The hope is Li Ning can earn an edge over competitors by bringing fresh, new products to market and clearing out old stock without a fire sale that would further dent the brand. But it's an expensivestrategy that will cost at least 3.6 times profit for the whole of last year. The plan also carries a high degree of difficulty given it involves a number of different moving parts, including 52 distributors, notes Barclays.
此举是寄希望于李宁能通过向市场推出全新的产品而领先于竞争对手，同时在无需降价促销的情况下清空存货，降价促销会进一步损害其品牌。但这是个代价高昂的战略，其代价至少是去年全年利润的3.6倍。巴克莱(Barclays)指出，这个计划同时还有很高的难度，因为它涉及多个不同的运转部门，包括52家经销商。
Li Ning is paying a high price to go back to the starting line. But victory in the race is by no means guaranteed.
李宁正为重新回到起跑线上而付出高昂代价，但这也不能完全保证它会获得这场比赛的胜利。
TOM ORLIK
- annual [´ænjuəl]
a.每年的 n.年刊 (初中英语单词) - steadily [´stedili] ad.坚定地；不断地 (初中英语单词)
- domestic [də´mestik] a.家庭的；本国的 (初中英语单词)
- expensive [ik´spensiv] a.费钱的，昂贵的 (初中英语单词)
- victory [´viktəri] n.胜利，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- consumer [kən´sju:mə] n.消费者；用户 (高中英语单词)
- massive [´mæsiv] a.厚实的；魁伟的 (高中英语单词)
- billion [´biljən] num.万亿 (高中英语单词)
- retail [´ri:teil, ri´teil] n.&a.&v.零售(商品的) (英语四级单词)
- anticipation [æn,tisi´peiʃən] n.预期；预料；期望 (英语四级单词)
- clearing [´kliəriŋ] n.(森林中的)空旷地 (英语四级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- earnings [´ə:niŋz] n.收益；报酬；获得 (英语六级单词)
- strategy [´strætidʒi] n.兵法；战略 (英语六级单词)
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