The Tang family is the Chinese founding family of footwear and sportswear retailing giant Belle International. The company was founded as Lai Wah Footwear Trading, Ltd., by Tang Yiu in 1978.
Today, Belle International is one of China’s largest footwear retailers, with over 20,000 company-managed retail outlets in mainland China and nearly 125 retail outlets in Hong Kong and Macau.
Yiu established Belle as a footwear manufacturer before transforming it into a wholesale operation in 1991. He began the company’s retail business with the Staccato brand, eventually becoming China’s largest retailer of women’s shoes.
Yiu would go on to acquire brands such as Senda, found brands such as Tata and introduce the Teenmix brand to the Chinese market. He took the company public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007.
Yiu’s daughter, Tang Ming Wai, would eventually become the group’s executive chairman. In 2017, both Yiu and his daughter sold their stakes in Belle to a private consortium for a reported value of $6.8 billion.