Reebok 2015 Annual Report Download - page 15

TO OUR SHAREHOLDERS
Letter from the CEO
11
1
2015 was a very successful year for the adidas Group. We reached all of our major financial goals
and even exceeded our initial top- and bottom-line targets. This was made possible because we
reacted like true champions after the severe challenges we had been facing in 2014. We used
our form crisis as an opportunity, analysed our weaknesses, realigned our business, rolled up
our sleeves and took up the fight for gold. As a result, our 2015 performance is a picture-perfect
example of a successful comeback in sport. As a Group, today we are stronger and in better shape
than ever before:
•In 2015, Group sales increased 10% on a currency-neutral basis. In euro terms, revenues were
up 16% or € 2.4 billion to a new record of € 16.9 billion.
•
Our core brand adidas, by far our largest business, drove the Group’s top-line expansion,
growing 12% currency-neutral and reaching sales of € 13.9 billion in 2015, the highest level
ever, with momentum accelerating towards the end of the year. This was particularly visible in
Western Europe and North America, where revenues grew 31% and 12%, respectively, during
the fourth quarter.
•Reebok reported a 6% sales increase for the full year and now has eleven consecutive quarters
of growth under its belt.
•
Our underlying net income grew 12% to € 720 million, despite delivering on our promise to
significantly step up marketing investments to spur revenue growth and drive long-term brand
desire.
•With an increase of 56%, our share was not only the top performer in the DAX-30 in 2015, but
also outperformed all major peers and reached a new all-time high towards the end of the year.
These financials provide clear evidence for the major progress the Group has made over the past
15 months. But our success goes way beyond financial figures.
With our strategic business plan ‘Creating the New’, we have developed a new game plan aimed
at accelerating our growth trajectory until 2020 by significantly increasing brand desirability. And
while officially this plan only kicked in at the beginning of 2016, Creating the New has already
set free a lot of positive energy within our Group during the past year. This is the result of a
completely new mindset – brands first – which we are living internally and which is also reflected
in the reorganisation of roles and responsibilities within our sales and marketing organisations.
Following the implementation of ‘Brand Leadership’, today our Global Brands organisation has a
centralised role when it comes to key decision-making relating to the appearance of our brands and
products around the globe. With this approach, we ensure that our product offering enjoys a high
level of commonality worldwide, while at the same time we guarantee that major initiatives such
as product launches and communication activities are managed centrally before they are executed
locally by the markets. I have absolutely no doubt that this new consumer-obsessed mindset and
organisational structure spurred our success in 2015 as it helped us to be much more impactful
vis-à-vis the consumer in many areas of our business.