An Adidas flagship store in Nanjing Road Pitetrian Street in Shanghai, China.
CFOTO | Future publishing | Getty images
Adidas On Wednesday, reported an increase in sales in the fourth quarter that exceeded expectations, because the retailer sold the last of his remaining Yeezy shares, but underlined the slower income growth in the coming year.
The German sportswear giant recorded a 19% increase in income at neutral currency rates to 5.97 billion euros ($ 6.34 billion) during the three -month period, before 5.72 billion euros provided by LSEG analysts.
Operating profit reached 57 million euros in the fourth quarter, compared to 377 million euros in the same period last year.
Actions fell 2.6% shortly after the market opened on Wednesday.
Sales of the full year increased by 12% to the neutral currency rates to 23.7 billion euros, compared to 23.5 billion euros planned. Operating profit totaled 1.34 billion euros in 2024, compared to 1.27 billion euros.
The figures have taken ahead with the company’s own advice, raised In October, for an annual income growth of around 10% at neutral rates and an operating profit of around 1.2 billion euros.
CEO Bjorn Gulden described the results of Wednesday as “much better than what we expected”.
“Although we are not yet where we want to be in the long term, it was a very successful year that confirmed the strength of the adidas brand, the potential of our company and what our teams do fantastic. We still have a lot to improve, but I am very proud of what our people have achieved in 2024,” he said in a press release.
Describing its forecasts for 2025, the company said that it expects neutral sales in currency to increase to a high rate to a figure and operating profit between 1.7 billion euros and 1.8 billion euros.
“For 2025, we are in very good shape,” said Gulden. “Of course, there is a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty at the moment, but with products that we think we are in fashion and the attitude of being agile and more local, I do not see why we should not succeed.”
Adidas tries to develop its market share in North America in the middle of the downward sales of Nike and a wider retailer is moving away from over-dependence on a lower China.
Adidas sales in North America dropped 1.6% to neutral neutral levels in currency in 2024, having struggled to recover from the end of its formerly lucrative Yeezy sneakers. The giant of sports clothes was forced to chop the Yeezy line after finishing his partnership with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, on a series of anti -Semitic remarks that the rapper made in 2022.
On Wednesday, the company said it has sold the rest of its Yeezy inventory in the fourth quarter.
Gulden seeks to keep the Adidas away from his Yeezy line which has losses and has aroused a broader reversal of the brand since it took the bar in January 2023.
Yanmei Tang, analyst at Third Bridge, underlined the elimination of the Yeezy brand and the absence of important sporting events as opposite winds for the coming year. She also noted that this indicated the need for a new innovation beyond its popular samba and gazelle sneakers to stimulate its growth objectives.
“While Adidas managed to resume traction in lifestyle shoes, in particular with its terrace line (Samba, Gazelle and Spezial), the peak of this trend may have already passed in key markets like Europe,” Tang wrote in a note on Tuesday.
“The brand is now focusing on more recent silhouettes such as SL 72 and the potential resurgence of the superstar, but it is unlikely that it is entirely by compensating for the expected slowdown in the terrace trend,” she said.
Adidas gained ground against the Grand Rival Nike in recent quarters, the market share of the first passing at 8.9% in 2024 against the 14.1% of the last, according to GlobalData quoted by Reuters. However, the emergence of more recent brands, notably on, Hoka and New Balance have brought increased competition to the world sports clothing market, each part of claw in the past year.
