Adidas marches on in H1, 2019

Herzogenaurach, Germany — Sports goods and footwear company, Adidas consolidated sales were EUR 11.4 bn in the first half of 2019. This is higher by 5% than the same period in 2018.

Gross profit across the business rose 9% and hit EUR 6.1 bn in the half of 2019.

Kasper Rorsted is Adidas' CEO. He said that in the second quarter,' sales in our strategic growth areas Greater China and e-commerce continued to increase at a double-digit rate.'

Taking the half as a whole though, Adidas said that gross margin was up 1.8% to 53.5%.

It said that favourable currency developments; lower sourcing costs; and, improved product and channel mix were greater positives. But the shine was taken off the numbers buy higher air freight costs and a less favourable pricing mix.

The company said it expects revenue growth to speed up in the second half of the year, and the gross margin is likely to grow to 52% by the end of the year. This will feed into profits.