Currency-adjusted sales in the important market collapsed by 27 percent.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Munich Before the change at the top of the group, the problems at Adidas, the second largest sporting goods company in the world, are great. In view of the slump in sales in China and the stop of the cooperation with the controversial US rapper Kanye West, the Dax group lowered its forecasts again on Wednesday.
For the year as a whole, Adidas now only expects sales growth “in the low single-digit percentage range”. Originally, the outgoing CEO Kasper Rorsted had forecast a sales increase of eleven to 13 percent currency adjusted, but then lowered the expectations several times in the course of the year. In October, Adidas was still expecting five percent growth.
Adidas announced that profits from continuing operations are expected to be around 250 million euros in 2022. The group had initially promised up to 1.9 billion euros. Most recently, Adidas still expected 500 million euros, but then warned that the separation from West would reduce the result by 250 million euros.
Adidas does not succeed in the turnaround it had hoped for
The day before, Adidas had announced that Puma CEO Björn Gulden will become the new boss on January 1st. Rorsted will step down at the end of the week after several profit warnings this year. In the meantime, CFO Harm Ohlmeyer is to lead the group on an interim basis.
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Adidas had actually hoped for a trend reversal in the second half of the year. However, sales in the third quarter rose by only four percent, adjusted for currency effects, to 6.4 billion euros. Currency-adjusted sales in the important Chinese market even fell by 27 percent.
The fact that things are going much better at Puma shows that the crisis in the Dax group also has home-grown causes. The smaller competitor increased sales in the third quarter by 17 percent to a record 2.35 billion euros and was also able to improve the operating result. While Rorsted lowered the forecasts several times, Gulden was able to raise expectations over the course of the year in his role as Puma boss.
More: Change perfect: Puma boss Björn Gulden will lead Adidas in the future