Supervisory Board Report
Extract from the Annual Report
Dear Shareholders,
We look back on another exceptional year. Thanks to strong brands, unique partnerships and collaborations in the world of sport as well as a sharp focus on our consumers’ needs, the company was able to record another year of strong top- and bottom-line growth. Driven by innovative products and powerful marketing campaigns, the momentum experienced by our brands remained high throughout the year. This led to sales and earnings results that clearly surpassed targets set at the beginning of the year. These positive developments are the consequence of numerous measures which have been implemented to support the successful execution of our strategic business plan ‘Creating the New’. First introduced in 2015, Creating the New was updated with several complementary initiatives at the beginning of 2017 in order to grow the top and bottom line even faster than initially projected. Consequently, adidas updated its outlook for 2020 and presented an even more ambitious set of financial targets. In 2017 again, we generated double-digit sales growth rates in almost all regions, including in the focus markets North America and Greater China as well as the important e-commerce channel. Paired with an exceptional profitability improvement, this shows that the company’s success is both broad-based and well balanced. The divestiture of the TaylorMade, Adams Golf and Ashworth brands as well as the CCM Hockey business was completed during the course of 2017, which will allow the company to focus even more on the execution of its strategic business plan. Newly appointed members of the Executive Board have assumed their roles fast and smoothly, with Harm Ohlmeyer taking over as Chief Financial Officer, Karen Parkin being elevated to Executive Board Member responsible for Human Resources and Gil Steyaert becoming Executive Board Member responsible for Global Operations. All three appointments were internal ones, which speaks to the quality and depth of the organization’s pool of talent. Taking all this into consideration, the company is well positioned to continue to grow profitably in 2018 and beyond.
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For the Supervisory Board
IGOR LANDAU
Chairman of the Supervisory Board
March 2018
Read the full report of our Supervisory Board in our 2017 Annual Report > Supervisory Board Report (Page 27)