The proposed adidas-Salomon acquisition of Top-Flite will do little to further the intentions spelled out by the companys CEO, Herbert Hainer, in comments to the German magazine, Der Spiegel.
Hainer stated that adidas is falling behind Nike in the American market, saying, “Nike turns over about four billion euros more than we do. We are almost tied all over the world, the gap is in the U.S., we have to close it there.”
Based on the two companies latest quarterly reports, Nike did about $950 million in the EMEA market compared while adidas reported group sales of $1.0 billion for the period ending March 31st. Asia was about $360 million for Nike in their fiscal Q4 ended May 31st, while adidas posted just over $300 million in the region in their calendar Q1. The Americas were just under $150 million for Nike in their last quarter and adidas-Salomon saw about $40 million in Latin America in their last quarter.
North America contributed $437 million in total adidas-Salomon group sales in the period, while Nike posted $1.2 billion in sales in the Nike brand alone.
Hainer went on to say that adidas is going to pursue two different avenues to make the playing field level again. “Adidas may be able to narrow the gap on its own, but not close it, thus we are also looking into which firms we can acquire,” he said.
While Nike is busy snatching up NBA stars, adidas is looking for a “global symbol,” perhaps to help boost global sales, but there is no word on who this icon will be. Hainer said, “Although Nike usually offers a higher price than we do, we still get some athletes because they feel they are better off with us and that we take better care of them.”
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