Asics Corp. plans to bring in more lower-priced running shoes as part of its plan to almost double sales in five years, according to a report in Bloomberg News.
“We can't expand by focusing on the medium-to-high end of the market anymore,” Toshiyuki Sano, an executive in charge of finance, said in an interview at Asics' headquarters in Kobe, Japan with Bloomberg. “We want to offer simpler entry-level models.”
According to Bloomberg, Asics Corp. in a statement last week said it aims to
reach sales of 400 billion yen ($4.8 bn) or more by the fiscial year to March 2016.
Sano said Asics will introduce more entry-level models with a
recommended retail price of around $60. Asics has mainly been selling shoes priced between $75 and $125,
while Nike offers models for less, he said. Shoes priced under $75 currently account for about 10% of Asics' athletic- footwear sales, Sano told Bloomberg.
“While we want to offer entry-level shoes, we want to keep the price
around $60 so we can offer certain functions,” Sano said. “At the
$50-range you can't include some functions, and we are reluctant to go
there. We wouldn't go down to $30.”
“We want to attract entry-level runners,” he said. “If that base grows, so will sales of our higher-level models.”
Asics, which has flagship stores in New York and London, also plans to open
similar outlets in western Europe within the next five years, Sano said.
In a separate report on propertyweek.com, Asics' retail operations manager Fernando Pina said the company planned to open more than 100 stores in every major European capital city over the next five years.
Asics on Nov. 4 forecast net income will rise 20 percent this year to 10
billion yen. It cut the target from a previous estimate of 11.5 billion
yen because of the yen's strength against other major currencies. Sales
are expected to rise 5.6 percent.
