Columbia Sportswear appoints head of Chinese joint-venture

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
Jun 20, 2013

Columbia Sportswear has named Samson Wong as the head of its Chinese entity, Colombia Sportswear Commercial (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. This joint venture was created between the American sportswear brand and Swire Resources Limited, a subsidiary of Asian conglomerate Swire Pacific Limited which has distributed Columbia’s brand in Hong Kong and Macao since 2002 and China since 2004, and will be operational from January 1 2014. Columbia Sportswear will have a 60% stake in the company and Swire will take the remaining 40%.

Samson Wong already knows Columbia well. He started at Swire in 1990 as a financial controller before reaching the position of executive director in June 2012, all along following the company’s relationship with Columbia Sportswear in Asia.

Swire Resources’ revenues attributable to its Columbia distributorship totaled over $150 million in 2012, selling through approximately 70 branded retail locations and to dealers who operate more than 680 mono- and multi-brand retail locations.

The agreement is due to run for 20 years but it is likely that the minority shares will be bought out in the next five year. Swire will remain the sole distributer of Columbia Sportswear in Hong Kong and Macao.