Adidas plans to layoff up to 500 jobs at its headquarters in Germany, media reports said. CEO Bjoern Gulden is intending to slash some of its workforce at the firm’s headquarters based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Reuters reported citing a source who participated in a meeting last where the layoff figure was announced.
Currently, the sport retailer employs a workforce of nearly 5,800 people in the German city. However, a spokesman for the company refused to confirm the job cut number but said that the company structure was ‘too complex in a constantly changing world’.
Gulden has started to decentralise the company and move responsibility from headquarters to individual markets. Last week, on Tuesday, the company reported preliminary figures for 2024 which fared better than expectations as sales climbed 11 per cent and operating profit touched €1.34 billion.
Puma Announces Cost-Cutting Measures
Notably, competitor Puma also announced in the week that it plans to initiate a cost-cutting programme. The announcement followed the company reporting a net profit in 2024 below the earlier year’s level. The net profit for 2024 touched €282 million, in comparison to €305 million reported in 2023.
With the cost-cutting strategy, Puma plans to return to an EBIT marin of 8.5 per cent by 2027. The sports retailer said that this programme would see the company look for savings in areas like personal expenses, however, a spokesperson informed that Puma plans to keep a stable workforce and has no target globally for layoffs.
Arne Freundt, CEO, Puma said, “While we achieved solid sales growth in 2024 and made meaningful progress on our strategic initiatives, we are not satisfied with our profitability.” The executive said that he expects the company to clock stronger growth in 2025.
Puma further stated that net profit felt the impact of higher non-controlling interests. The firm’s joint venture with United Legwear & Apparel Co (ULAC) fared well, however, it could only book 51 per cent of the profit while the rest went to ULAC.
