Asics has reported net sales increased by 18.0% to ¥342.2bn (£1.8bn) during the first half of 2024, ending 30 June. A company profile in the first RetailX Europe Top1000 360° report looks at how the Japan-based brand plans to grow the business by improving its customers’ wellbeing.
Asics was founded by Kihachiro Onitsuka in 1949, following his return from the war in 1945. His inspiration came from the Latin phrase Anima Sana In Corpore Sana (Asics) – or a healthy mind in a healthy body.
His belief that exercise benefited both the mind and the body underpinned his development of the business, which started out making sports shoes and in 1985 opened the Asics Institute of Sports Science. Today the multinational Asics corporation, based in Japan, sells the brand’s products around the world both online and through about 1,900 shops.
In its 2023 full-year financial statement, the business, now led by CEO Yasuhito Hirota, outlined the Vision 2030 strategy that aims to create “a world in which we can all live healthfully, both mentally and physically, maintaining involvement with exercise and sports over our entire lifetime.”
That strategy will see it expand from manufacturing products such as shoes to creating facilities and communities where people can take part in sports, and providing data-informed programmes and services that contribute to their health.
It says: “By organically combining and expanding these three business domains, we believe that Asics itself will provide value to society and as a result, Asics will achieve a cycle of growth. In addition, we will continue to make strategic and ongoing efforts to address the three themes of digital as a tool, personal development of products and services tailored to each individual and sustainability in solving social and environmental issues necessary for people to stay healthy and involved in sports.”
The business has expanded its philosophy to the global environment, and its sustainability strategy aims to identify and use more sustainable materials to make its products by 2030, and to use 100% renewable energy by the same date.
On its UK website, Asics offers free standard delivery for shoppers spending more than £50 as well as free returns. Members of its free OneASICS loyalty club get free shipping on all orders, 90 days to try out purchases, and free race training plans.
Asics is one of 11 company profiles in the RetailX Europe Top1000 360° report, showcasing retailers who stand out in the market. Each profile offers company profit and sales figures, share price and web traffic as well as a review of what makes their business.
You can download the full 116-page RetailX Top1000 Europe 360° report for free, here.
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