Strong third quarter for Adidas

Sports clothing manufacturer Adidas experienced a strong third quarter. Its growth was slower than in the previous quarter, but its operational profit exceeded analysts’ expectations.

Surge in China and online

The German sports company’s total turnover grew 8.7 % to 5.677 billion euro and that would have been 12 % at level exchange rates. The growth pace was below that of the second quarter, when it grew 20 %. The company fared the best in China (+ 23.1 %) and North America (+ 18.5 %). Western Europe trailed with a mere 6.3 % turnover increase and there were negative results as well: Russian turnover plummeted 11.1 % and Japan suffered an 8.2 % loss. Excluding exchange rate fluctuations, Japanese turnover did grow 2.7 %.

The Adidas brand grew 9.7 % compared to the year before, but Reebok turnover dropped 1.6 %. eCommerce is still a major area of growth, with turnover up 39 %.

Despite its somewhat disappointing growth, Adidas did manage to increase its margins, leading to a 34.6 % operational profit increase (795 million euro). Net profit spiked 36.1 % to 527 million euro. “The company’s strategic growth areas – North America, Greater China and eCommerce – were again the main drivers of our strong top-line performance during the third quarter. We are even more pleased with the quality of our growth, which is clearly reflected in the exceptional profitability improvement in Q3,” said CEO Kasper Rorsted.