adidas, "struggling to keep pace with larger U.S. rival Nike, reported progress on Wednesday at clearing excess inventories in Russia and in its flagging golf business," according to Emma Thomasson of REUTERS. adidas yesterday confirmed its '14 sales and profit forecasts after reporting Q3 results "at the upper end of analyst expectations." Inventories "were up" 7% on the year at the end of September "on a currency neutral basis," compared with 16% at the end of June. The company, "bolstered by" the '14 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, "reiterated that it expects a mid-to-high single-digit sales increase" for '14, before currency effects, and an operating margin of 6.5-7%. But it "trimmed its gross margin target for this year" to 48-48.5% from 48.5-49%, a range it "had already cut in August." adidas expects that sales will "rise at a mid single-digit rate" in '15, while net income "should grow at a higher rate than group sales." adidas reported a 13% fall in Q3 operating profit to $507M (all figures U.S.) on sales up 6% to $5.16B, "slightly ahead of average analyst forecasts" for $499.5M and $5B, respectively. adidas said that all regions, "except North America, contributed to the sales growth in the quarter." Meanwhile, sales for adidas subsidiary Reebok grew 7% in Q3 on a currency-neutral basis, "helped by momentum in fitness training, walking and running," but down from 9% in Q2 (REUTERS, 11/6).
