The sneakers’ giants keep on going: Adidas (+8%) and Nike (+8.7%) run forward with their footwear performances, Yue Yuen (+6.3%) marches on

German group Adidas closed 2018 with a revenue of 21.9 billion euro, +3% with constant exchange rates and +8% with fixed, thanks to the growth of the Asian and North American markets. Sales went up 36% (in 2017 the increase was of 56%). Profit was of 1.7 billion euro (+45%). Footwear remains the driving force behind the growth, with 12.7 billion euro in revenue, +3% over the previous year. The company expects more challenging times for 2019 due to difficulties in the procurement chain, as it will slow sales in the first semester of 2019, mostly in North America. Adidas still expects to grow its total turnover between +5% and +8% at constant rates. Another good news for Adidas is that Reebok, owned by the former, is finally showing profits.
Nike’s swoosh has propelled forward, resulting in a revenue of 28.9 billion USD between May 2018 and January 2019, +8.7% in comparison to the same period of the previous session. Net profits are worth 3 billion USD, almost four times the 796 million USD of the previous year. China grows (+23%). As per Adidas, Nike’s footwear continues to be the business’ most important segment to drive sales: +9.9% in the first 9 months and revenue at 17.7 billion USD. The bad news for Nike is that the profits from owned brand Converse have decrease by 2% to 463 million USD. The company expects revenue growth to be on the higher end for 2020, but below the expected +10.6% the general consensus was hoping for.
Asian brand Yue Yuen fears, even with the good performance in 2018, the impacts that the trade war between USA and China will have. The Taiwan-based group closed this past year that ended on December 31^st with 9.7 billion USD in revenue (+6.3% in comparison to 2017). 44% of the revenue was generated by sneakers’ production, which increased by just +1.5%, while casual and outdoor shoes’ revenue fell by 13.5%. Retail activity weighs 35.3% of total revenue and in 2018 this segment grew by 23.3%. Gross Profits increased by 4%, reaching 2.4 billion USD. The group manufactured 326 million pairs of shoes in 2018, registering a slight growth of +0.4%, while the average sale price fell by 2% to 16.53 USD per pair.