Sportswear giant Adidas has reported double-digit growth across all regions over the last year, encouraging the brand to upgrade its profitability targets.
Net sales for the retailer rose 14.8 per cent to €21.2 billion (£18.8 billion) while gross profits rose 17.6 per cent to €10.1 billion (£8.96 billion).
This was driven by a 27.4 per cent rise in North America and a 29.5 per cent rise in China, both key “strategic growth areas” for the brand over 2017.
Despite significant growth across these regions, western Europe was still Adidas’ key market, with sales rising 12.6 per cent to €5.9 billion (£5.23 billion).
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The group’s Adidas brand saw an 18.1 per cent increase, driving the bulk of revenue with €19 billion (£16.9 billion) in sales, compared to its sister brand Reebok’s €1.8 (£1.6 billion) in sales representing a 4.4 per cent rise, despite a drop in sales in the US.
Another key driver of growth for the brand was ecommerce, which jumped by 57 per cent over the year.
Adidas has continued to project 10-12 per cent currency neutral revenue growth between 2015 and 2020, but has increased its predictions for net income from continuing operations to grow by 22 and 24 per cent a year, up two per cent.
“2017 was a strong year – financially and operationally,” chief executive Kasper Rorsted said.
“We made great progress toward achieving our mission to be the best sports company in the world. Our strategic growth areas – North America, Greater China and Digital Commerce – were the main drivers of our performance.
“2018 is a key milestone on the road to achieving our long-term targets for 2020. We expect quality growth, with over-proportionate bottom-line improvements.
“This will enable an even stronger increase in profitability by 2020 and allows us to upgrade our long-term target yet again.”
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