The German sports equipment manufacturer Adidas published net profit of 310 million euros (321.6 million francs) in the first quarter of 2022 on Friday, down 38% over one year while its current activities were impacted by a net decline in sales in China.
Sales at constant exchange rates fell 3% year-on-year, with a 35% plunge in China where restrictions linked to Covid-19 created a “difficult market environment”, explains the group in a press release.
Bottlenecks in the supply chain, due to the blockages of its factories in Vietnam the previous year, amid the coronavirus pandemic, also reduced growth by around 400 million euros in the past quarter. .
Overall sales in euros amounted to 5.3 billion euros, up slightly by 0.6% thanks to the dynamism of the group’s Western markets (+9.1% in Europe and the Middle East, +12.8% in North America) and the football and outdoor categories.
Net profit attributable to the group, which includes a gain on its Reebok subsidiary sold last year and therefore removed from the scope of activities, amounted to 482 million euros, down 13.6% for the year.
The difficulties of the equipment supplier on the Asian continent forced Adidas to lower its annual gross and operating margin targets.
The Nike rival, however, confirmed its sales targets, with growth at constant exchange rates still between 11% and 13%, but expecting to land at the lower end of the range.
In particular, it intends to return to growth in Asia-Pacific in the second quarter.
However, “we assume the difficult market environment in China will persist,” group boss Kasper Rorsted said in a statement.
“With strong double-digit sales growth in most of our markets, which represent over 80% of our business, we are well positioned for a successful 2022,” he concluded.
The annual net result is still expected to be between 1.8 and 1.9 billion euros.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / awp / afp