Retail - international athletic apparel company

Client Industry: Retail

Regions Served : Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Jinan, Kunming, Qingdao, Xiamen, Dalian, Shenyang, Tianjin, Wuxi, Xi’an, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chongqing, Guangzhou

Client Overview: The client first entered into the China market in 2013 as an international athletic apparel company with retail shops in Shanghai and Beijing, and an online shop on a Chinese B2C e-commerce platform. The client has been named as one of “America’s Best Large Employers for 2022” by Forbes.

Accounting and Advisory

Client Brief

The client’s business scaled up rapidly across China with an increased need for accounting and tax compliance for all the stores. However, the following factors have made the process challenging:

Vendor management and communication became overwhelming as the business expanded.
Increasing demand for vendor selection in second and third tier cities.
Legal aspects and best practices vary for their stores across China.
Logistics difficulties for legal representatives to travel to the sites for the registration of local branches and setting up of bank accounts.

How we helped

The management of tax-related matters for over 50 stores in China requires strong tax governance and control. Our team assisted the client to establish a national accounts management system, including daily and monthly tax declaration, purchasing orders, invoice compliance and on-site administrative support for the tax bureau.

We provided assistance when the client’s legal representative travelled to local branches to register new stores and set up bank accounts.

Employee Management

Client Brief

Rapid expansion and increased cross-regional expansion related demands.
Diversified types of employment and work schedules.
The company’s key stakeholders are located overseas.
The company lacked standardised HR policies at both a national and local level.
High staff turnover rate.

How we helped

We built the E-HR system for the client at the national level and provided one-stop service for its cross-regional store expansions including recruitment support, compliance, maintenance and localised services.

Our support team assisted the client with communication and problem-solving.

Installed an Employee self-services (ESS) app: E-payslip/E-leave for smooth HR operations.

Corporate Compliance

Client Brief

For international companies that are new to the country, legal challenges arise for international businesses to open retail stores in China because of varying regulations across each jurisdiction.
Internally, the client has to ensure the correct usage of company assets such as company stamps, the legal representative’s personal stamp and business license.
Externally, the client has to ensure that regulatory compliance and standard requirements are met at both national and local levels.

How we helped

SBA safe keeps essential legal assets for 74 stores across China, including the company chops and stamps, certificates and licenses, as well as the maintenance of all the statutory company registers and filing records.

We assisted the client to design the authorisation matrix to approve the usage of licenses and seals.

We self-developed the C3 online system to manage Licenses/Certificates & Seals and automatic email reminders for expiring certificates /licenses.

We offer local support and act as our client’s partner to coordinate with local authorities.

Our Value

Accounting and Advisory

Our professional and experienced team established the national accounts management system to assist the client with company formation, local representation, tax compliance, accounting and regulatory compliance to ensure our client met local requirements.
Our affiliation with Allinial Global network, covering services in more than 60 offices across China.
On-site support for legal representatives travelling to local branches for company registration and setting up of bank accounts.
Vendor selection and vendor relations management in second and third-tier cities.
Digital tools support including RPA to assist tax compliance services.

Employee Management

We worked closely with the client's COE team to oversee the management of the HR system, analysed employee data, and worked towards optimising the process and providing compliance advice for its global headquarter.

We also provided:
- HR SCC management.
- Nationwide daily payroll services.
- 24/7 online operations management for data and report.
- Easy-to-access Query SaaS platform.
We performed the role of an HR team at the local level to free up the client to focus on more strategic efforts.

Corporate Compliance

Set up an efficient risk management program to maximise the client’s chance of success.
SBA took over the administrative burden of doing international business so our client can focus on their core business.
We ensure that regulatory compliance and standards requirements are met across different jurisdictions.