For China’s yuppies, getting fit’s a hit and they’ll pay to compete
Former underwear manufacturer cashes in on young wealthy Chinese people’s obsession with fitness as economy shifts towards services sector
Li Zhiguang has run a Guangzhou underwear factory for two decades but now has his sights set on a whole new ball game.
The factory had 600 workers a decade ago but the workforce has now halved as rising labour and raw material costs threaten the survival of the labour-intensive business.
“A worker’s salary was about 800 yuan a month when I started my factory in 1998, now it’s 5,000 yuan (US$725),” Li said, adding that fierce competition limited his ability to charge more for underwear.
As his factory struggled with shrinking profit margins, Li, an amateur tennis player and a fan of Roger Federer, noticed that tennis was becoming increasingly popular among Guangzhou’s 14 million residents.
Li decided to cash in on the trend last year by launching an all-comers tournament under the brand name Amateur Tennis Association (ATA). He rented 12 tennis courts, allowed anyone who paid a registration fee of 80 yuan to compete and offered products from his own factory and friends’ workshops as prizes.
It proved an instant success. The initial tournament attracted 200 players, mostly young office workers and university students but also some doctors and business owners.