Adidas wants to catch up on the corona deficit

Adidas blows catching up after the Corona year. The world's second largest sporting goods manufacturer wants to largely make up for the slump in sales and profits of the past year. Sales are expected to increase by 15 to almost 20 percent in 2021. In view of closed stores, it fell by 14 percent in 2020, adjusted for currency effects, to 19.8 billion euros, as Adidas announced in Herzogenaurach, Franconia. The profit from continuing operations is expected to at least triple to 1.25 to 1.45 billion euros after collapsing to 429 million (2019: 1.92 billion) euros in 2020. The forecast no longer includes the US subsidiary Reebok, which is to be sold and will be classified as a discontinued operation from the first quarter. Costs in connection with the planned sale are likely to have an impact of around 200 million euros on the result from continuing operations. The gross margin is expected to return to the level before the pandemic at around 52 percent. In 2020 it had fallen to 49.7 percent. Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted also wants to present the plans for the next four years. "We will quickly get off the starting blocks in the first year of our new strategy cycle," he announced. According to Rorsted, Adidas would also like to support the federal government with the vaccination campaign. "We are ready, that is very clear. The question is whether the federal government is ready," said Rorsted at ntv. "It is very clear that the solution for Europe and the world lies in accelerating vaccination. We, like many large corporations, could significantly accelerate this with our infrastructure, which we would like to make available." In his opinion, there will only be lasting openings with a significant acceleration of vaccinations. However, Rorsted currently sees this neither in Europe nor in Germany.