Global investors on webcast, good afternoon. Welcome to the 2021 annual results presentation of ANTA Sports Products. I would first introduce our management in attendance. Chairman and CEO, Mr. Ding Shizhong. Greetings. Executive Director and CFO, Mr. Lai Shixian. Executive Director, Vice President and Outdoor Sports Brand CEO, Mr. Zheng Jie. Greetings. Executive Director, Mr. Wu Yonghua. In today's presentation, Mr. Lai will first present the 2021 full year financial performance. Mr. Zheng will present a business review and outlook. There will be a Q&A session. Mr. Ding and the rest of the management will take questions from investors. We will first take questions over the phone, and then we will take online webcast questions. First, let me invite Mr. Lai to go through our 2021 excellent performance. Mr. Lai, please.
Investors, good afternoon.
Now let me first report to you our group's 2021 financial review. In 2021, when the pandemic was volatile and the overall consumption environment was weak, well, if you look at our various indicators, we have reached record high. There are five highlights which are rather outstanding. First, our revenue increased 38.9% to CNY 49.33 billion, maintaining industry-leading position in China. Number two, revenue of all other brands increased 51.1% year-on-year to CNY 3.49 billion. Operating profit increased 2.3 times to CNY 640 million, becoming another growth driver of the group. Three, free cash inflow of the group increased by 56.5% year-on-year to CNY 10.37 billion.
Cash position at the end of the year increased 4.23 billion to more than 24 billion RMB, which is cash on hand. Number four, EBITDA of the JV holding Amer Sports business increased significantly by 46.6% to CNY 2.37 billion. Share of loss to the group greatly reduced from CNY 600 million in 2020 to CNY 81 million. Revenue and operating profit from the continuing operations of Amer Sports in relation to the core brands business exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and hit a record high. Number five, the proposed final dividend is HKD 0.68, which is the same as the total dividends per share in 2020. Dividend payouts ratio for the financial year is 45.6%, which is also the highest since we acquired Amer Sports.
Very stable return is being delivered to shareholders. In terms of our revenue in 2020, we're up 38.9% in revenue. ANTA almost CNY 24 billion, up 52.5%. FILA revenue was CNY 21.8 billion, up 25.1%. For other brands, CNY 3.49 billion, up 51% more than 51%. For ANTA brand business growth, there are a few main drivers. First, online business developed very rapidly. In 2020, when the base was high, there is still a growth of 61.6%. Then starting H2 of 2020, we started the DTC model, and there was some impact as a result. Number three, even though the pandemic was volatile, the retail market was also not stable.
ANTA brand was growing quarter after quarter, and consumers also liked the brand and customer demand rose, retail discounts decreased. These are the reasons driving up the brand revenue of ANTA more than 50%. FILA brand revenue increased by 25.1%, mainly because of fast growth of e-commerce business, even though the base is high. FILA brand performance continued to be stable. Retail discounts decreased slightly. For all other brands, DESCENTE and KOLON SPORT, revenue increased by more than 50%, and Operating Profit margin reached record high. This shows that the growth potential is gradually being released for these brands. For Gross Profit margin, up 3.4 percentage point to 61.6%. That's for the whole group. ANTA DTC model has caused some impact to that.
ANTA and FILA and other brands performed well in terms of retail discount comparing with 2020. If you look at different brands, ANTA brand GP margin 52.2%. FILA 70.5% GP margin. All other brands, 71% GP margin. Comparing with 2020, there was increase. Operating profit margin down 3.5 percentage points to 22.3%. On one hand, this is mainly because ANTA business DTC model accounting for higher and higher share. As a result, OP margin was driven downwards because of some selling cost. The profit margin is still high, but retail discount has not reached a higher level. Another reason, in 2020, there was promotion because of Olympic Games, advertising and promotion expenses increased.
Even though GP margin was up 3.4 percentage points, OP margin came down. Operating expenses ratios. A&P expenses up 2.4 percentage points to 12.4% because of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and FILA's high-end advertising and brand building campaigns. This expense increased. Staff costs increased 1 percentage point to 13.5%, because of retail business expanded, and also we offered better salaries and wages to attract better talents to join, so staff costs increased. R&D cost as a percentage of revenue was down 0.2 percentage point to 2.3% because of expansion in scale. We attach much importance to R&D, so we made a lot of investment. The scale increased fast, so this expense ratio came down a bit.
Share of loss of JV and also cost attributable to equity shareholders from CNY 600 million to CNY 81 million. This is the share of loss of JV. Margin of profit attributable to equity shareholders up 1.2 percentage points to 15.7%. This is because of decrease in effective tax rate and also mainly because of the decrease in loss, the big decrease in loss from Amer. Working capital management. Average inventory turnover of five days to 127 days because ANTA Retail operation scale expanded. That's why some inventory was added. The business model changed. Overall speaking, inventory management and credit situation of the group is very good. Average trade receivables turnover down 13 days to 26 days. This is because of increase in scale. At present, the direct operation accounted for a bigger share.
That's the reason. Average trade payables turnover down 13 days to 53 days. This is also a normal turnover under the trade conditions. Usually, credit period is 30-60 days with the suppliers. Liquidity. In 2021, free cash flow CNY 10.4 billion. Operating cash inflow CNY 11.9 billion, up 59% year-on-year. This shows that we are strong in cash generating capability. At the end of the period, net cash was CNY 11.4 billion. After deducting all the debts and convertible bonds, we have net cash of CNY 11.4 billion. Comparing with the end of 2020, which was CNY 5.9 billion, we are 100% up. This is my brief report on financial performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lai, for the presentation.
We have high base and big total, and so we showed positive growth over eight consecutive years. This is the result of our hard work. Now Mr. Zheng will go through our increase, especially our high quality growth. Mr. Zheng, please.
Good afternoon, everyone. Let me briefly report to you our 2021 operations. First of all, let's take a look at the overall economy in 2021. In 2021, there was still some impact from the pandemic on our economy. The overall Chinese economy for the whole year showed 8.1% growth year-on-year. There is also 12.5% growth in retail sales of consumer goods in China. That means our overall economy is still stable. Last year, in 2021, it was a year of two Olympic Games, the Tokyo Olympics and Beijing Winter Olympics.
This gives a big push to the sportswear market. At the same time, during Beijing Winter Olympics, there was 300 million people joining the winter sports in terms of ice and snow. I think for sportswear industry, this is a very positive situation. From 2021, we realized that the Chinese sportswear industry showed five important characteristics. First, rise of domestic brands. These Guochao products are very well received. Popularity of Guochao continues, and the trend of patriotic consumption is recurring. It is becoming the normal. Number two. Chinese brands did technological innovation, and they have now stronger R&D capability. If you look at products, they are actually on par with global brands. Then there is support from Winter Olympics as a result.
There is fast development of ice and snow sports in China. For the development of the industry up till now, there is more and more personalization and segmentation trends, especially on the high-end, professional and niched areas. Demand increases year after year. In 2021, we can see multi-level online platform. Douyin is very outstanding, so e-commerce layouts experienced major change. Now have more choice. For sportswear market, when we are having this backdrop, we can see that in the past ten years, the top five brands market share, for the first time, came down. This shows that diversification in the market is happening. Another thing is, for ANTA Group, if you refer to our results presentation today, given this intense competition in the market, our overall market share still increased steadily. In 2021, our group's market share is number one.
Number 2. If you look at the three dimensions of customers, products, and channels, women's products in the market have become the main battlefield of sportswear brands. For kidswear, the growth rate of sportswear for kids also developed fast. Even though for FILA kidswear, the situation is still rather diversified. I talked about Guochao products and high-end outdoor sportswear market, which is being very diversified. Consumers offline focus more on good, high quality experience and brand experience, e-commerce, diversified competition. Given all these characteristics, let's take a look at the performance of various brands in 2021. ANTA brand. In 2021, we introduced the Lead to Win acceleration plan. With the two Olympic Games, we introduced the concept Sports for Life, ANTA for China.
With the support of the two Olympic Games, especially the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, our overall, reputation rate and also, brand awareness was much enhanced. We provided 12 Chinese winter sports team with competition outfits. In terms of, number of medals won, again, we have made a historical breakthrough, so people support Winter Games a lot. ANTA and its professional attribute is being highly regarded by consumers. In 2021, if you look at our basketball category, we have also achieved breakthrough. Our basketball shoes overall sales reached record high. We are number one in the market in sales volume. Well, even though Klay Thompson was absent from the NBA for three seasons, our KT series was still a consumer favorite. In 2021, our D2C transformation continued to be deepened.
At the end of 2021, we have 6,000 stores in the D2C model, and 52% of them are directly operated by us. Overall operating efficiency can be compared to some good sportswear retailers. In the first stage, our D2C transformation had made good success. Under the Winter Olympic Games, what I would like to share with you two more numbers. Through the Winter Olympics, one big breakthrough is in tier one cities. Our consumers, especially the high-end, white collar worker consumers, have given a good number, 20%-30% growth. The overall brand was enhanced. We have achieved big success in this regard. Besides, in professional, running shoes promotion, we also achieved very outstanding results. For ANTA main brand in 2021, we are confident.
Not only did we achieve a good result in terms of market share, a leading position, but for our overall brand reputation and word-of-mouth, it has been greatly enhanced. ANTA KIDS. In 2021, we continue to strengthen our leading position in kids' sportswear. We are making ourselves a professional sportswear brand, and professional sportswear products have also entered the kids wear, the kids series, so that children in their daily activities can get the best protection and support. In 2021 for ANTA KIDS, we have made important breakthrough, especially our footwear products. In 2021, our footwear products accounted for 45% share, and the sales volume exceeded 15 million pairs. For ANTA KIDS in 2021, we achieved very good results in the kids' sportswear market. FILA. In 2021, annual growth was 25%.
We have three major strategies, top quality products, branding, and channels. In 2021, we kept on developing our own products in the athleisure, high-end athleisure area, and we reinforced our credibility. With different celebrities all over the world, including Gianna Jun, Lay Zhang, Gao Yuanyuan, Ni Ni, Jiang Shuying. They serve as our endorsers for FILA. We also work on crossover series so as to promote the high-end segment and quality enhancement. For FILA, apart from the main brand, there's also FILA Kids, and it achieved good breakthrough in 2021. For FILA Kids, in the high-end children's products segment, FILA Kids already became a leader in the segment. DESCENTE. As Mr. Lai just mentioned, it is a Japanese high-end professional sportswear product.
In 2021, overall development saw rapid growth on the basis of 2020 for DESCENTE. We are in golf, ice and snow. In high-end professional area, sports area, we built a very strong credibility. Last year in Q4, we launched the ice and snow outfits. In that area, DESCENTE has built a leading position in ice and snow outfit. In 2021, our store efficiency exceeded CNY 1 million. We have 180 stores, and for our store productivity, more than CNY 1 million. There are 33 stores with productivity over CNY 20 million. DESCENTE is now a high-end elite, and it is the premium professional sports brand. For KOLON SPORT in 2021, for the first time, sell-through, retail sell-through exceeded CNY 1 billion, and it has stepped onto a healthy development path.
High-end outdoor lifestyle positioning of KOLON is such that it is so outstanding in the outdoor lifestyle area. Its product unique characteristics, especially in the outdoor segment, are well-liked by northern consumers. Besides in other regions, in 2021, we also made important breakthrough. We sponsored Chen Kun and Liu Shishi under KOLON . They are our brand endorsers. With their influence, we're able to enhance our image also our credibility in the light outdoor segment. We believe that on the basis of 2021, in 2022 and in the future we will see better development for KOLON SPORT. In 2021, our distribution network and also store accounts has not increased a lot. For ANTA store accounts, there's a decrease. FILA, more or less the same as in 2020, but our business results up almost 39%.
This shows that our channel upgrading has been realized. We pay attention, in 2021, the quality of the overall channel, not quantity. Store productivity and efficiency is the most important indicator in our store operation to drive improvement of store operation quality. For our distribution network in 2021, experienced a very good upgrading and efficiency also improved well. E-commerce business. Within the year, e-commerce business contributed 34.2%, up 61.6% year-on-year. We are still on the high-speed development track for e-commerce. For our e-commerce platform, by means of digital allocation of resources, now we are very high in efficiency. Our operating model is also much better than the past. Social e-commerce has seen important breakthrough, public traffic to private closing.
We have made a lot of attempts so that our e-commerce business in 2021 performed very well, highly successful. Supply chain platform. In 2021, our supply chain structure still has its core in mainland China. Platform efficiency was affected by the pandemic to a certain extent, but overall supply chain efficiency and supply capabilities have been ensured. In 2021, our business and also retail sell-through growth enjoyed some good momentum. Just now, I presented about our group's directions in 2021. I gave you a very brief report. For Amer Sports, just now, Mr. Lai also said that in 2021, comparing with 2019, before the pandemic, our various businesses achieved good growth, especially the three main brands, Salomon, Wilson, and Arc'teryx. In our core markets, all these brands achieved good breakthrough.
In the Chinese market, Arc'teryx made very important and significant progress. In 2021, and thereafter, we have good expectations concerning Amer Sports. Looking into 2022, well, in 2021, we laid a strong foundation, and we will still continue our single-focus, multiple brands, and diversified arrangement to enhance our overall brand operation capability. We will upgrade and break through in terms of ANTA, and then FILA high-quality growth, digital transformation, and organization and talent upgrade. These are the four must-win battles. In this way, we will enhance our operating capability. Now, the pandemic is still uncertain. For the whole group in January and February, our results were better than expectation, but March was quite challenging. When the pandemic is still uncertain, we are still very active and positive.
We use our mature operating system to face up to uncertainties in the market. Regarding 2022, if there is no major pandemic outbreak in 2022, we should be able to complete all the targets for 2022. That's all from me. Thank you very much.