Nature lover bet on his fellow Chinese getting into outdoor sports 25 years ago. Today his brand Sanfo has annual sales of US$70 million
- A failed start-up triggered Zhang Heng’s search for a new venture, and he picked outdoor adventure and sports equipment. His company now has 60 outlets in China
- A triathlete with an interest in multiple sports, he wears his brand Sanfo’s products and say his experience helps him understand customers’ needs
The business career of Chinese triathlete and outdoor sportsman Zhang Heng, 51, is the embodiment of psychologist Marsha Sinetar’s saying, “Do what you love, the money will follow”.
When Zhang’s technology start-up folded in 1997, it left him 270,000 yuan in debt. Not knowing what to do next, he set off for Tibet for three months to explore and to consider his options. There, the idea of setting up a nature-related business came to him.
Zhang borrowed 30,000 yuan from his family and set up Beijing Sanfo Outdoor Products near Peking University, in Beijing, that same year. That first store no longer exists, but his business empire now operates 60 others in China.
Of the 300 brands it stocks, 10 are sold exclusively at Sanfo, and it designs and manufactures two of them – Sanfo Plus and X-Bionic. The latter is a high-end Swiss functional clothing brand; Zhang bought the rights to make and sell its clothes in China at a cost of nearly 100 million yuan (US$15.7 million) after more than two years of negotiations.
