12% drop in Q1 earning for Adidas Salomon
The world’s second-largest sports footwear and apparel maker, Adidas Salomon of Germany, has reported a 12% drop in first-quarter earnings, due to continuing weakness in its key U.S. market. However, the results were slightly better than the 15% drop that had been expected by many industry observers.
Net profit came in at €46 million ($ 41.26 million), with group sales climbing 3% year-on-year to € 1.6 billion ($ 1.78 billion).
The company said it expected to see sales pick up in the second half of 2001 when new products with greater consumer appeal come on stream in the United States. It also said it was confident of meeting its full-year targets of a 15% increase in net profit, plus a sales increase of between 3-5%. However, sales improvements were not expected for the year as a whole in the United States.
"We expect further improvements throughout the year, especially in the second half, when initial results of our new strategies will become visible," Chief Executive Herbert Hainer said.
"We are confident that we will achieve our growth targets for the year." The company said new orders for its adidas brand were down 7% in the key North American market, but up 1% overall.
