China's Li Ning Fails to Capture International Markets

Li Ning’s share price has been halved in recent months since its mid-March peak, leaving the Chinese sportswear group floundering with bloated inventories and some corporate leadership confusion. This comes despite the company’s fervent efforts over the last few years to innovate, rebrand and reprice itself upward. Changing its swoosh-like logo and adapting its Nike-like slogan, from “Anything is Possible” to “Make the Change,” did little to help. Li Ning’s troubles merely reflects China’s inability to match its manufacturing capability with successful global brand creation. Nevertheless, the Beijing-based sports manufacturer will renew its attempts at world domination shortly, just as soon as it finds itself a new CEO in the wake of the previous one’s resignation last week. Meanwhile, the company has announced that founder and Olympics gymnast Li Ning himself will take the helm alongside chairman Jin-Goon Kim until a new CEO is found.

Source: WWD