CEO of Adidas rejects calls to offload Reebok

The

head of German sportswear company Adidas AG rejected calls from some shareholders on Thursday to sell the loss-making Reebok brand, saying he was confident that a restructuring plan would restore it to profitability.

Chief executive Kasper Rorsted made the comments at the Adidas annual meeting after two shareholders asked how much more time the company would give the struggling brand.

Rorsted was i nstalled t o replace long-serving former boss Herbert Hainer — who bought in Reebok in 2005 — after activist shareholders took stakes in Adidas, and after several investors called on the company to sell more non-core businesses.

“We are not going to sell Reebok because we are still very confident of the strategic position of the brand,” Rorsted told the meeting. “We are convinced the measures we are taking are going to be successful.”

Rorsted, who took over as CEO in October, announced plans in November to overhaul Reebok, making it independent of the core Adidas brand, moving 650 staff to a new location in Boston, cutting 150 jobs and accelerating store closures.

Adidas reported a rebound at Reebok in the first quarter with a 13% increase in sales, but said it did not expect it to keep up that pace for the full year as the period had been helped by early product launches and new stores.

“I would ask myself whether it is high time to sell Reebok,” Ines Straubinger, vice president of Germany’s DSW association for private investors, told the Adidas AGM on Thursday.

Gerhard Jaeger, spokesman for the SdK investor association, noted that Reebok sales continued to fall in the US market in the first quarter. “Mr Rorsted, how much patience do you still have with Reebok?” he asked.

Rorsted admitted that Reebok was still not profitable but said he was sure restructuring measures would turn it around, adding his plan was for three to four years.

On Wednesday, Adidas announced the sale of its golf equipment business and clothing brands TaylorMade, Adams Golf and Ashworth to private equity firm KPS Capital Partners for $425 million.

Adidas bought TaylorMade in 1997 as part of its $1.4 billion acquisition of French skiing label Salomon, developing it into the world’s biggest supplier of golf drivers. It bought smaller Ashworth in 2008 and Adams four years later.

But the golf business has been in decline for years. In 2016, it saw sales decrease 1% to €892 million, accounting for 5% of group sales and down by a third from a peak of €1.34 billion in 2012. It continued to be loss-making last year.

Rorsted said on Thursday that there were also several interested parties for Adidas’ ice hockey brand CCM.