Adidas Group Changes Its Goal Of "Best Sports Brand" In 2020

One of the largest sporting goods manufacturers in the world.

The group changed hands and finally settled.

In the evening, it was confirmed from Adidas China. In January 18th, Adidas group formally announced the appointment of Kasper Rorsted to take over the current CEO Herbert Hainer.

The latter will continue to serve as Adidas group CEO to September 30, 2016 to ensure a smooth handover with Kasper Rorsted.

Kasper Rorsted will join the board of Adidas group in August 30, 2016 and become an ordinary member of the board. In October 1, 2016, it will be formally appointed as Adidas group CEO.

The successor comes from Henkel.

In fact, as early as February 2015, it was reported that the board of directors of Adidas group has officially started looking for new CEO to replace Herbert Hainer.

After the news came out, Adidas's stock price rose sharply.

Since then, as one of the group investors, Kasper Rorsted has been interviewed with the chairman of the Adidas board of supervisors and expressed his proposal to the Hainer successor.

It is understood that Herbert Hainer, Adidas group's longest serving CEO, has been holding this position since 2001. Despite its dissatisfaction with the board, Herbert Hainer still renewed its contract with the company until 2017 in 2014.

During the term of Herbert Hainer, Adidas group's market value increased from 3 billion euros to 18 billion euros.

However, as Adidas's global business growth has been weak in recent years and its distance from Nike has been widening, at the same time, some markets outside the mainland have also caught up with the trend.

Against this background, the board of directors and investors are not satisfied with the leadership of Herbert Hainer.

It is pointed out that Herbert Hainer bought billions of euros in 2006.

The brand also disappointed investors.

Zhang Qingceng, founder of sports Consulting Co. Ltd., told reporters that Reebok's success in the US was related to the fitness market. But after being acquired by Adi, Reebok, as a sponsor of many professional sports, gradually blurred its personality, which also made its brand decline gradually.

However, after the pformation of fitness brand, Reebok's performance in Adidas's recent earnings is gradually recovering.

In the third quarter of 2015, excluding the exchange rate factor, Reebok's sales revenue increased by 3% over the same period last year.

Of course, the new CEO Kasper Rorsted is not too small.

It is reported that Kasper Rorsted was born in Denmark and is 53 years old. He has rich experience in multinational management and has been a senior executive in several world-renowned enterprises.

Over the past 8 years, he has successfully led the German listed company Henkel.

Before serving Henkel, he also held senior management positions in international companies such as Digital, Oracle, Compaq and HP.

Performance growth trend has emerged

At the moment, investors are looking forward to Kasper Rorsted leading Adidas to end some weakness in its growth.

Adidas issued two performance warnings in 2014, and its share price dropped sharply thereafter.

However, after entering 2015, the performance is getting better.

Its latest announcement was in November 2015, according to the data provided in 2015 7~9 months, thanks to the accelerated growth of Adidas brand sales and the strong improvement of Reebok and Taylor Adidas Golf sales performance, group revenue grew 13% over the same period last year.

After excluding the exchange rate factor, the sales of Adidas group showed an increasing trend in all segments.

Undoubtedly, the Chinese market has become the biggest boost for Adidas's growth.

2015 is the end of the 5 year plan for Adidas Greater China, and not long ago, the new 5 year plan has also been released.

Adidas said its classic sports series will continue to maintain its brand's high attractiveness and increase the number of stores from 350 to 650 in the next 5 years.

In addition, more women's stores will be opened before 2020.

Adidas told reporters that it will expand its retail business, strengthen its core city strategy and expand its business in emerging cities.

By 2020, emerging cities will contribute a larger share of growth to the company.

Analysts said that in the Chinese market, Adidas's goal in 2020 was "the best sports brand".

After that, it was not its style, and in the US market, Adidas second was surpassed by the new brand of Under Armour in 2014.

"The European Football Championship will be held this summer, and this is a good opportunity for Adidas, the main sponsor, to boost its performance."