| Â for more | | | | 2010. |
| BEIJING (Reuters) - Adidas AG, the world's No. 2 | | | | Adidas's sales in China jumped 60 percent in the first |
| sports goods maker, on Thursday played down the | | | | six months from a year earlier, leaving China on |
| short-term business benefits of the Olympic Games | | | | course to become its second-largest market by the |
| but said China would become its second-largest | | | | end of this year, Hainer said. |
| market by the end of the year. | | | | Â |
| Â | | | | The group's expansion would be driven not just by |
| Adidas posted forecast-beating results on Tuesday | | | | the Adidas brand but also by Reebok, which Adidas |
| for the latest quarter, bolstered by the Euro 2008 | | | | bought in 2005. |
| soccer championship. | | | | "We will open approximately 1,000 Reebok stores |
| Â | | | | here by the end of 2010, and this will definitely fuel |
| But Adidas Chairman and Chief Executive Herbert | | | | our growth," Hainer said. Currently there are about |
| Hainer said the Beijing Games, which open on Friday, | | | | 800 Reebok outlets in China. |
| would be different. | | | | Â |
| Â | | | | Adidas said earlier this year that it expected to |
| "The European championship immediately gives you | | | | increase the number of its own-name stores in China |
| revenues from the balls, from the boots, et cetera, | | | | to 6,300 by 2010 from over 4,000 now. |
| whereas the Olympic Games gives you | | | | Â |
| more or less a mid- and long-term | | | | Hainer said Adidas would keep investing in China, but |
| perception and loyalty to the brand by the | | | | the proportion of shoes made there would drop |
| consumer," Hainer told reporters. | | | | slightly "from over 50 percent to around 50 percent" |
| Â | | | | as the firm expanded production in Cambodia, |
| Adidas is the official sportswear partner of the | | | | Vietnam and eastern Europe. |
| Games and official partner of the Chinese Olympic | | | | Â |
| Committee. | | | | A number of multinational companies are shifting |
| Â | | | | some production out of China, mainly due to rising |
| Hainer said the company expected to record $1 billion | | | | labor costs, but Hainer said Adidas had no plan to |
| in sales in China this year and restated its goal of | | | | shut any factories in China. |
| reaching 1 billion euros ($1.55 billion) in revenue by | | | | |