Adidas is making a loss worth millions, but wants to finally turn things around in 2024. CEO Bjørn Gulden is confident of victory, including when it comes to recruiting employees.
For more than 30 years, Adidas made a profit year after year, but in 2023 this series ended with an announcement: For the first time since 1992, Germany’s largest sporting goods manufacturer made a loss. Minus 58 million euros from continuing operations after taxes – that is the net result for last year. In 2022 there was still a profit of 254 million on the books.
And so Adidas boss Bjørn Gulden fluctuates between a tough analysis of reality and great self-confidence when presenting the figures. “If you add all of that up, it was one disaster after another,” says Gulden, meaning the aftermath of the corona crisis that hit the company, supply chain problems, the war in Ukraine, but also a home-made “disaster”, namely the failed cooperation Kanye West. The US rapper, who now only wants to be called Ye, had repeatedly made anti-Semitic comments. Production of the Yeezy shoes named after him was then discontinued. The end cost Adidas around 500 million euros in sales.
But the turnaround is in full swing, assures Gulden. Cult lines such as the “Samba” or “Campus” shoes, which are currently in high demand again, should help in particular. Adidas also expects additional income from major sporting events such as the men’s European Football Championship in Germany and the Olympic Games in the French capital Paris, even if more sponsorship and advertising contracts could have been obtained.
Gulden came to Adidas from competitor Puma at the beginning of 2023. Since then, he has been working to turn around not only the numbers, but also the mood in the company. Within a year, the Adidas share price rose by 37 percent to just under 200 euros. Despite the net loss, the DAX group wants to pay its shareholders a dividend of 70 cents per share, as in the previous year.
Adidas boss says it jokingly
In 2024, the year of the company’s 75th anniversary, Adidas wants to make an operating profit of 500 million euros. This is also an announcement to the 60,000 people who now work for Adidas at the headquarters in Herzogenaurach in Central Franconia and worldwide. The infrastructure at the locations is so good that you could actually ask for money from the employees: “Our infrastructure is so good that, jokingly, people have to pay to work here.”
Whether the Adidas boss has misjudged himself, after all, Generation Z in particular now chooses their employers very carefully – and sets the highest standards for themselves.
Source: Stern
