Adidas Finds Its Winning Formula
Fashion meets function.
Herbert Hainer is the longest-serving chief executive officer of a major German company: He has been running Adidas, the sportswear maker, since 2001. In January, when the company announced the name of his successor, its share price leaped in jubilation: Investors were unhappy with him. But now, as Hainer serves out his final quarter as CEO, Adidas is set to have a record year and show a nine-digit annual profit (in euros) for the first time in its history.
On Wednesday, Adidas announced that its U.S. sales jumped 26 percent in the quarter than ended in June. It's the lackluster performance in the U.S. that cast a shadow over Hainer's tenure and made investors push for his resignation. They were too impatient: Adidas shares have strongly outperformed the German stock index in the last year as they almost doubled in price.