Adidas Ag Ord

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Adidas AGQ1 2024 conference call and live webcast. I'm Alice, the chorus call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and 0. The conference will be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Sebastian Steffen, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks very much, Alice. Hello, everyone, from sunny Herzogenaurach, and welcome to our Q1 2024 results conference call. Our presenters today are our CEO Bjorn Golden and our CFO Harm Ohlmeier. Before Bjorn and Harm will take you through the puts and takes of the quarter and explain our expectations for the rest of the year, I would like to ask you once again that during the Q&A session you limit your initial questions to two to allow as many people as possible to ask their questions. Thanks very much. And now, without any further ado, over to you Bjorn.

Thanks and hello everybody. I hope you're all in good shape and good mood. I think the picture on the screen is an important one. It shows both the men and the female team of Real Madrid playing in the Y3 Yamamoto designed. And I think that mirrors a little bit of what we are trying to do to merge lifestyle and sport and the Coma Hot and Good Brand again. And of course, tonight is a special night with Bayern playing Real. And I hope you all cheer for the Bayern, because that's where we are a shareholder, as you know. You saw our numbers already a couple of weeks ago, where we went out with an ad hoc. And you know we went out with an ad hoc because the year has actually started better than we have expected. I won't try to take you through the story why, and then look a little bit more into the details now. Our sales were all currency neutral, up 8%. If you take the easy business up, which was $150 million, it's around 5% up. And that is stronger than what we had expected, given the order book and where we were at the beginning of the year. That was positive, but what was even more positive was that the gross margin reached 51.2% of 640 basis points. And again, I think everything that we had an impact of was positive. And the only negative thing was, of course, the currency, which is still pulling us in the wrong direction. The easy effect on the gross margin is about 70 basis points. So that tells you that The underlying Adidas gross margin is already above 50%, and as you know, that is very important for us to get to the profitability that we want mid-term. If you put that all together, we then had an operating profit of $336 million. That's up from $60 million a year ago. And the same thing here, the contribution from Yeezy on the profit line was a little bit less than $50 million, so it shows you that the underlying Adidas contribution is then around $290 million. What is very important for us, and you know was one of the major targets when we met first time a year ago, was to get our inventories down. And as you can see, it is now at 4.4 billion, which is a reduction of 1.2 billion. And, of course, this is the underlying thing that can, what should I say, support both our growth with fresh inventory where we can have good sell-through, and, of course, also extremely important for our gross margin. And, again, I am actually very proud of what Arthur and the sales team and what my friend here has done on the financial team here. to actually have a discipline to get this executed in the different markets. If you put it all together, we then also said we increase our guidance, the top line from mid-single digit to mid-to-high single digit, and the operating profit, the EBIT, from around 500 million to 700 million. When you then say why have we had this improvement, it's obvious that our franchises in FUTURE LIFESTYLE is continuing to do very, very well. We started talking about the Terra side, the Gazelle, the Samba and the Statial a year ago. And what has been added afterwards is the campus, which are now outselling the Samba in certain markets, and lately also the SL72, which you remember is also a Paris style, but on a running midsole, and it's the Olympic shoe from Munich in 72. So this is what I've turned the brand around on the lifestyle side. But it's not only the old franchises. It's also the new products. We've had the most successful soccer launch, I think, ever with the Predator. We are very happy with the jersey sales and the launch for both the Euro and the Copa. We have successfully launched the Supernova Rise, which is our answer to running specialty, on top of the very successful RD Zero range. We have launched the most innovative trail running shoe, the Agravic Speed. And we've had certain successes with our two franchises, Anthony Edwards and Harden in the basketball arena. And then we have started doing collabs with the superstar. Here you see the Edison Chen cloth collab that we have done. So many new things that is added to the lifestyle area that has helped us getting the numbers as positive as they are. If you then look geographically, we start with the only negative number. That is North America down four. And again, we have said all the time that we believe North America is lagging six to nine months behind. We believe that America will turn into positive in the second half. And one of the reasons why we are optimistic is that the inventory in the U.S. is now down 41% compared to a year ago. So we are much cleaner, and we also start to see that our retailers are getting cleaner with our inventory. If you then look at our whole market in Europe, up 14% and very, very happy with the development in Europe. And I think it's fair to say that our sell-through is even higher than our sell-in. So the growth currently with the consumer is even higher than the 14% you see, but a tremendous success. in Europe in the turnaround. If you look at integrated China, plus eight, I think we've spoken about China many times, and we have said that we think we can grow double-digit already this year. Eight is a little bit shy of double digit, but not a lot. There is a lot of energy in the market. We are doing a lot of activities, both in performance and lifestyle. We are very happy with the performance of the team, and we feel confident that we will end the year of double digit, despite, I would say, an economy that is maybe not as hot as many people would have hoped for. If you then look into Japan and South Korea, two markets that are very dependent on trends. South Korea is probably the market that is leading trends currently. We are up 7%, and also here we start to see that demand is higher than supply, and we are very optimistic about the mid-term development of those important markets. Remember, these markets were earlier into the Southeast Asia market, And it's now separately managed of local people reporting straight into headquarter. Latam still a very strong quarter plus 18. And that is despite all the issues we have in Argentina and also in Brazil. A difficult economy, high inflation, the team doing a great job. And then finally emerging markets where our entrepreneurs, you know, running the smaller and the newer markets are doing a great job and where we are making the progress that we had planned. That gives you the 8% growth. And as I said, excluding EC, which was around 150 million, it's then 5%. Why do we have this growth? I think one reason is that we continue to invest heavily in marketing. In September last year, we launched the original campaign. And during first quarter this year, we have launched the You Got This campaign, which is replacing impossible is nothing as our tagline. And I do think that when you see how we look around the world, we have a global frame, but we fill it with local content, both on the lifestyle area and on the performance area. And we are very, very happy with the way the new Adidas actually looks. In that line, having global credibility and being locally relevant is very important, and that means that we're working with local brands for collaborations. We are localizing global product lines, like you see in Korea, and we're doing a lot of big activations in markets like China. You see here on picture our original apparel activation, which is a huge activation and also very, very successful. In general, localizing our go-to-market processes is very important. You see here examples of stands in Mexico and actually doing activations there. You see Pharrell together with Edison Chen actually doing an activation in Japan for the collab around Superstar. And then also in America and Latam, very, very active with, what should I say, what is relevant for the consumer in our approach to be very relevant in the local market, but within the global frame of the brand. We do not only invest in marketing, but also in infrastructure. Here you see the new distribution center in Saudi Arabia, and you see our new distribution center in Europe. We call it Campus South, which is actually in northern Italy, and I think it's one of the most automatic distribution centers in the market. And then maybe more emotional, but I think extremely important for the brand, we do have our shoe factory in Scheinfeld, 40 minutes from here. We are using that to produce our original soccer shoes, the World Cup and the Copa Mundial, but are now also doing lifestyle products on the high end of the market. And I think because it's so important, I would like to show you a little bit of video that we've done for one of our collabs. because it is really something special for us and it shows the importance of footwear and the manufacturing process.

In the Adidas, they have trained students as school workers. I thought it could be interesting. And now it is 38 years old. If you do it for so long, you like to do it. When we do such a project with the people we have just done, they talk, they laugh with each other. So it's really great. We were always part of all the articles, all the machines that we could send. So it's a part of one, actually. It's just real work. And yes, you should do it.

I think very cool. And again, this is the center of what we're all about, footwear and making it. And very important for us that we keep this factory and we will continue to invest in it to make product, but also to use it as a place to show people how you make footwear and educate the next generation in shoemaking. If you then look at the channels, our wholesale business, remember this is what we sell into the retailers, grew by 2%. Might not be so impressive, but you have to remember we're coming from order books being down 20%. And I can assure you that the order book now is positive, and you will start to see the wholesale business continue to grow. If you look at our own retail, these are the physical stores. You see up 11. Fantastic like for like in our concept stores. many of them about 20, 30, 40, 50%, and doing extremely well because, of course, these stores have only Adidas products. And, of course, we clearly see that the consumer, when she or he can get a full Adidas assortment, they're buying a lot more than they did last year. Factory outlets, also growing, but at a smaller rate. And that is, of course, that we still have our factory outlets full of clearance. It's going to be less and less clearance, and you will start to see the freshness also coming through in our factory outlet. Our e-com growing at 34%. Of course, some of this is easy. But even if you take easy out, we have double-digit growth in our e-com. And the good thing is that we're discounting less and less. And our full price share is growing double-digit, which is the same we reported last quarter, because we clearly see that the combination of having our e-commerce brand and then commercial is, of course, what helps us, and it's not about optimizing the top line. That gives you the following split, 62% wholesale, 38% D2C, where on retail the stores are 21% and e-commerce being 17%. I can't tell you what the optimal mix is, but we think this 65-35, 60-40 is currently with the business we see a healthy mix. And then, of course, we will optimize distribution market by market as we go. But currently, we are very happy with this split. We are investing in new stores. Here you see examples from markets like in India, but also in Colombia. And you also see a new store in Ukraine. And I have to take the chance to thank our team in Ukraine, the job that they're doing in the energy, and that those difficult circumstances are unbelievable. And believe it or not, the business in Ukraine is also actually doing very well. The other store you see here is the new store in Saint-François, that's opening in the next four weeks, in the middle of Saint-François, and it will open before the Olympics, and it's going to be one of our most important stores, and I hope you all will have the chance to stop by. On the right side, you see it's not only about new stores, it's also about elevating and rejuvenating the old stores. And here you see some examples especially from Korea and Japan where we are investing in elevating the brand. But as I said many times, we can only be successful if we look good next to the other brands. And here you see examples of how we have been elevated in Snipes, in Dix, in JD, and also, you know, in a Turkish street technical boiler. I could have shown you the same examples out of Foot Locker because the Foot Locker stores lately have looked as good as anybody else with our product. And I think we have done huge steps with the way we look in all the high street stores. If you then look at the divisions, footwear growing at 13%, apparel only growing at 2%, and we have said all the time that apparel is more highly inventoried in general and that there has been more difficult to get growth. Happy to report that our soccer or football jerseys for both the Copa and the Euro is doing very well, higher than what we expected, so we are supplying more. but also that the original line is starting to grow, so I think we will start to see also bigger growth in apparel going forward. Accessory, mainly following the growth rate of apparel, and that's why it is basically flat dish. That gives you the mix, 60% almost being footwear, 35% apparel, and 6% being accessories, which again I think we all have to agree is a healthy mix. If you look at the split between performance and lifestyle, It is fair to say that the business now is driven by lifestyle. And I have to repeat that we couldn't have asked for a better, what should I say, distribution. The original growth is driving the heat of the brand. It opens the brand up for the younger consumer. The younger consumer tends to go out towards three stripes, first on footwear, then on apparel. And that is, of course, helping us tremendously also on the performance side. The performance side is already growing in the high end, in running, in soccer, in basketball, and in outdoor. And the next step is, of course, also to open that up for the more commercial area, and I would say the more everyday runner's area, or I would say the more comfort area. But again, very positive development for us to have this development. We continue to invest in partners. The guy on the left side is Jamal, the 16-year-old kid, playing for both Barcelona and the Spanish national team. Extremely proud that our sports marketing people were able to sign him long-term. Many people say he's the new Messi. Let's see. But at least playing both on the national team and in Barcelona at the age of 16, it's very, very special. This is just a mix of different use signatures. You see on the right side baseball players, both in Japan and the US. You see female basketball players, you see actors, and you do see that we find the best soccer club or football club in Saudi. There are many, many, many more, but I just want to see or show you the width of what you're investing in, and I hope you clearly also see the focus on local partnerships to help the business in the different markets. Where we have invested a lot and have seen the success is, of course, in the high-end running. Our running team are basically winning all the major marathons, and you see it here, like in London Marathon, where we took five out of six podiums. That means both on the men and the female side. And also in Boston, you know, Lema won the men's class, and we had more of the women in the top ten. And in general, I have to say that the Evo that you here see is probably the most innovative sports shoe that has ever been made. and at 137 grams with a carbon plate, it is setting records everywhere. Talking about records, we had our... Hang on, I have to go back. We had our Road to Records run on campus in the weekend, and as you can see, we had one world record on the mile. We had two under-20 world records, and we had nine national records here on campus. Fantastic performance. And then us, the employees, also joined, and we ran 5K. and we have more than 1,000 of our employees being part of it, and a unique event where you're all invited next year to both run and watch because it's something very, very, very special. If you then try to summarize where we are, you clearly see we have the hot tissues on the street, and we are maintaining them in a healthy way. It's not only Terrace, but it's also the campus. And not only do we maintain it, but we continue to invest in the campaign to support them. And when you ask, are they running out of steam, the answer is definitely no. These are the social search in Europe, where you see the Campus, Samba, Gazelle are all going upwards. And you see that Campus is now more searched than Samba. And you clearly see that we have three of the hottest shoes in the market before any competitor is coming. The social search is an important indicator for us, market by market, to see at what point in time do we need to manage the flow in a different way. If you then go into the future, the SL72, we started talking about a quarter ago. That's now being also scaled. So many retailers are now asking for it in more doors. The sale through both men and women is good. And this will then also be a shoe that will do several million pairs going forward. We have the low profile trend that we have talked about for a while. We saw it trending in the market on the carpet. We saw it, you know, being used by the coolest people. I personally think it's an extension of the terrace trend. And with our history both in martial arts, in boxing, and in motorsport, we will have volumes of low profile coming to the market already at the back end of the summer. Then we have spoken about lifestyle running. We have been criticized for not having innovation on lifestyle running. We are having five, six projects that are going to market as we speak in the rest of the 24 year. Some of them in very small quantities, some of them scalable. And as I said many times, you cannot program what shoe in this area will be successful. That's why we have more than one. We are, for example, reintroducing the old equipment line that we were very, very successful doing in the 90s, as best of Adidas. And you will start to see that being seeded into the trendsetters and into the fashion influencers. So a lot of excitement coming when it gets to new silhouettes and new materials and new concept of lifestyle running. And then, as you know, Superstar is the hottest and biggest shoe that Adidas has ever had. We are starting to heat that up again. We are cleaning the market, meaning taking, you know, seasonal colors out of the market. We will focus on white, black, black, white, triple black and triple white. But given the success now of Taras and Campos, we don't see the necessity of scaling it quickly. So we will take it slow and make sure that we're not overheating the market on our core trends. And with that,

blah blah i hand over to my friend harm who will take you through the real numbers yeah thanks for all the uh no i wouldn't call it blah blah all the good content that we do on the marketing and sales side and i just want to shed some light and what it really means for our financial performance and starting with the net sales as always i think everything has almost been said already so eight percent currency neutral growth in the first quarter Of course, when we exclude the $150 million that we did with Yeezy, it's 5% currency neutral. But what's even more important, what we said, you know, early in the year that we have 400 basis points headwind on the currencies, and you see it exactly here, the 8% currency neutral is actually 4% nominal reported. So exactly what we said at the beginning of the year from the headwind, but of course the performance is slightly better than we expected. What's even more important is the gross profit. And that's where we see the improvement. And I want to fast forward to the next chart right away. You see the improvement from gross margin in Q1 2023 was 44.8%. Significant improvement of 640 basis points to 51.2. But as all of you are interested in as well, what does it really mean underlying without Yeezy? And you see very clearly Yeezy didn't have a huge effect, only 70 basis points. So underlying, we had 50.5%. And again, with some gives and takes, we can confidently say we are above the 50% mark on the gross margin again. And that is really a great achievement in Q1. And as Bjorn said, it's very much linked to the inventory as well. That shows you some more details on the next slide as well. always said we have tremendous FX headwind especially in the first half but also for the full year and you see the benefits now of high freight rates last year where we get the benefits on freight product mix market mix of course less discounting you know better you know product cost as well and of course especially in Q1 we have the benefit of you know huge you know inventory provision that we built last in the first quarter that we didn't do this year we actually had some releases as well as we have such healthy inventory and of course that is not being repeated for the remainder of the year so it's definitely a special event in q1 as well but most important it's a comparison to last year so again very healthy margin q1 and very optimistic for the remainder of the year. There are two things before you get carried away on the gross margin. There are two effects probably for the second half that I want to mention right away. I'm pretty sure a question will come as well. As we are growing faster than expected and normally hedging 80% of our product purchases, of course we've got to buy some of the product at spot rate. So given where the US dollar is right now and the other currencies as well, of course that is something that we saw would develop better in the second half. So that's one thing you should know. And the second thing is, as Bjorn indicated, the growth in wholesale was 2 percent, and we want to accelerate that one for the remainder of the year. And also there, I don't want to make a big story out of it, but, of course, the channel mix will be something to watch for the next quarter as well. But, again, all positive, given where we started the year. Just be aware of it, that you don't get too excited about it immediately. when we talk about marketing and operating overheads very clearly we keep investing to marketing also something we said very clearly so 56 million more than last year that is linked to the campaigns and you you got this campaign that we launched starting at the super bowl but many more events you know afterwards as well and also on the operating overheads i don't even want to talk about leverage so we keep investing into sales And as Bjorn said, we want to have a cautious approach, how we want to make sure that we start growing the top line and having healthy inventory and great gross margins before we talk about restructuring that other brands are doing. So we are focusing on getting the product to the consumer. That is more important. But you see, leverage starts and it will continue. That all leads to an operating profit of $336 million, significantly up from last year. And also here, only $50 million from the Yeezy contribution. So all in all, a solid without Yeezy underlying business is around $290 million. Nothing really new on this one, as Bjorn already talked about it. Again, if you go to the next level, and I think there was quite some interest of many of you when we launched the numbers. Of course, we gained some interest as we have more cash on the balance sheet and we earned some interest around the world, so we are somewhat better on the financial income. But also on the financial expenses, I want to shed some light in here because it went up significantly. There are pretty much two effects that I would like to explain that count for the majority of that increase. And that is one inflation accounting in Turkey and Argentina that has a significant impact on this one, which runs through the financial results. And the second one is we did some repatriation of cash from Argentina, and that is very pronounced in the first quarter. So rest assured and don't quadruple that number for the remainder of the year. It was more pronounced in Q1 and will normalize over the next quarters to come. So again, it doesn't look good in the first quarter, but these are the two effects, you know, hyperinflation in Turkey and Argentina and repatriation of cash from these countries. Now when we come to the income before tax and also the tax rate and of course in the short term we don't want to optimize the tax rate and we won't be able to do so because the IBT is still pretty small relative to the past. Again, as we are becoming a better company this year, a good company next year and a healthy company in 26, Of course, the tax rate will improve as well. But compared to last year, you see already that we are getting to a normalized rate of around 30%. And as we improve over the years to come, we will get to a tax rate that we used to have a couple of years ago. But everything is very much linked to the operating profit that we need to run in the operational business first. That, of course, leads to a much better net income from a negative 24 million in Q1 2023 to now a positive 171 million in Q1 2024. We talked a lot about inventories. We can't repeat it often enough. We brought it down significantly, even 20% currency neutral. And this is when I look at the details coming from 5.7 billion by the end of Q123, including 500 million of Yeezy inventory that at that point we didn't know how to clear it, what to do with it. And you see confidently we cleared now 300 million of Yeezy inventory. Now ending up with 4.4 million at the end of March 24, including the 4.4 billion. It's 200 million easy inventory in. And I can probably clearly say today that's probably the lowest inventory you will see for the years to come. because we believe it's very healthy, not just from the size of inventory, but also from the aging of inventory that we believe that is a great base. And as we want to grow over the next couple of quarters and beyond, assume that is a low point that we have achieved now. Talking receivables, as we indicated, wholesale, given the order books that we had, it's just a slight growth with 2% in Q1. That's why we still see receivables being down compared to last year, but that is also something you should expect going forward, that receivables are growing as we go over wholesale business, so really no surprise here. The same is on the accounts payable. We start sourcing more products for the growth that we are envisioning for the quarters and the years to come. So also that is a low point. And, of course, we diligently manage both lines, receivables and also payables, but assume that is also going up in the quarters to come. And it's only slightly going up as you get prepared for accelerated growth in Q2 and in the second half. Overall, that leads to an operating working capital that has improved significantly as well. It's a combination of all the three above. Not a surprise if you add up these numbers that we made tremendous progress on the operating working capital. If you compare that in percentages over the last quarters, of course, we had some low lights in Q1-23 and Q2-23, but you see the progress that we did, not just on the inventories, but that was a main contributor to this one. And as we go to the road of being a A better company than a good company and a healthy company, you can measure us. If you become a healthy company at 26, that is probably something we would like to see below 20% again. But again, tremendous progress has been made on the average operating working capital development. That comes to cash, also improved from $778 million to now more than $1 billion, 40% up. And if you can quote me on this one, I always said, I feel comfortable if you get to $1.5 billion in cash. That's probably, with no further science, a good number that we would like to have on the balance sheet, living in a volatile world. And only when we get there, we talk about other measures, what we want to do with the cash. But right now, we want to make sure we are investing into the operational business, especially with some of the numbers that we have shown earlier that we get out of our concept stores. We want to make sure we keep investing in the brand and the D2C and wholesale business as we did since last year. Now, if you improve our cash, which will further improve for the quarters to come, and, of course, as we are not planning to refinance our bond that it becomes due in September, October-ish this year, we also believe that the overall... Adjusted net borrowings over EBITDA ratio will improve significantly this year, which is important not just for us and the health of our balance sheet and company, but also for the rating agencies. So we are committed for the next couple of years to also get a healthy adjusted net borrowings EBITDA ratio of below 2 again. And that shows again not just the P&L, but also the balance sheet is at very healthy levels and the liquidity is also fine. So that's where we are. More questions later. With that, I would like to hand over to Bjorn again.

Well, then we just have the outlook. No surprise for you. We told you this is only a couple of weeks ago, but just to repeat it, we're now expecting the net sales growth to grow from mid-single-digit to mid-to-high single-digit increase, and our operating profit, our EBIT, to grow from around $500 million to around $700 million. The assumption in this is that we will sell off the remaining Yeezy inventory, the 200 million at cost, which means no profit, but selling it at cost. We still expect significant FX headwind. And as we said many times, we will continue to kind of overinvest in marketing and sales to build the momentum then to get the leverage as we grow. The Yeezy business, I would like just to explain again to be sure we all have it the right way. In Q1, we sold 150 million. The next three quarters, we expect to sell off all the inventory, which is another 200 million, and that gives you then the total revenue of Yeezy of 350 million. If you remember last year, we sold 750 million, so it's then 400 million less. And again, compared to the guidance we had at the beginning of the year, we only promised you to sell 250, so that's then an increase of 100 million. On the EBIT level, we made 50 million ballpark in Q1. We do not expect to do any EBIT on the 200 million we're selling off. So the total impact on the guidance is then the 50 million. If you then look at the top line on the underlying business, you see we started the year with mid-single-digit increase. We have then added 100 million more on the EC, the 250 or the 350 minus the 250. And then the underlying business, the leaders business, we see an increase of 300 million. That sums up the 400 million, and the 400 million gives you then the change from mid-single-digit to mid-to-high-single-digit. And then finally, on the EBIT, we started with the 500 million. We add the 50 million from ETH, and then an underlying 150 from the DDoS business. That is a total of 200 million, and that gives you the 700 million. I also want to get back to one thing that we talked about at the beginning of the year. We said that the year will start flattish and then accelerate. Now, of course, the flattish was better in the first half or the first quarter. We expect still the second half to be up double digit. So you will see an acceleration. And why do we say that? Well, it is because we think we will maintain the franchises in a good way, and then we will have quite some interesting product launches. Some of them you see here, we will reintroduce the F50 as the second silo in soccer. Next to the Predator, we have a new drop set, which is the best-selling training shooter we have. We will relaunch the Z&E, which is the sportswear apparel range. We have a lot of, what should I say, interesting stuff coming on the original apparel, especially for her in Audi color. We will have a new Audi Zero Adios Pro, this time Pro 4 shoe, which in my opinion is the best running shoe we ever launched. We will have a new Ultra Boost, which is combining, you know, running with comfort and everyday, what should I say, leisure. And we have decided to launch more colors of the successful Anthony Edwards. And as I said, we're starting to scale SL72. So we feel very comfortable with the pipeline of product for the rest of the year. And then, you know, it's the year of sport. Two weeks ago, we launched our Olympic packages in Paris. We are making shoes for 41 different sports. That is 49 different shoe models. We have launched separate uniforms for all the federations you see here. And although I would have wished to have even more federations, and they will come in the future, I think we'll have a great presence both in apparel and in future during the Olympics. And you will see Adidas from a very, very good side. And again, remember, we have the Euro here. We have the Copa America in the U.S., Both tournaments very, very much dominated by three stripes, both on footwear and on apparel. You have the Olympic Games, which should be a great, great happening for everybody. And then it follows up with the Paralympic Games, which again will be as exciting. And when you put that all in context, we strongly believe that we put things on the right track in 2023. We believe that everything that you have seen, we won't be a better company in 2024. That will continue in 2025 to put both top line and some growth to the bottom line. And then in 2026, we think we will be a good and healthy Adidas again. And I just want to remind you that if we do the math, we think we believe double-digit growth. We believe that we need 50% to 52% margin growth. that we can get leverage to have 30% operating overhead, that we will continue to invest 12% in marketing, and that will then give you the famous 10% EBIT. I'm very happy with the way things have developed in the last three months. It shows the strength of the brand and the strength of this company. And again, we think if we do our job, we're on a very, very good track to deliver you what we have promised. So with that, I hand back again to you, Seb.

Yeah, thanks, Bjorn, and I'm going to hand over to Alice, who is going to moderate our Q&A session.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on the touch-tone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have answered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Questioners on the phone are requested to use only handsets and eventually turn off the volume from the webcast. Anyone who has a question may press star and 1 at this time. Our first question comes from the line of , RBC. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Afternoon, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. My first one relates to the 2024 guidance for EBIT. I think there's a kind of just reconcile why the EBIT guide is still quite conservative. I think if I back out the Yeezy contribution to the revenues in the EBIT in Q1, the underlying margin was about 5.5% on 5 billion of revenues, 5.2 actually. And then for the remaining... Three quarters of the year, you know, based on the guidance you've given, you expect to do something like $17 billion of revenues. But the implied margin on that to get to the $700 is only a 2% implied underlying Adidas margin. So why do you think the underlying Adidas margin will more than halve for the remainder of the year as you give the EBIT guidance? Any help there would help us understand the starting point as we build to 26th? And my second question just relates to the cadence of revenue growth through the balance of the year as well. Thank you for confirming that double-digit growth is more than expected in the back half again. But if we think that the starting point in Q1 on an ex-easy basis is already fairly strong, Is it fair to say that there is a scenario in which you may actually get to double digit in the second quarter based on all the momentum you're seeing in the business? Thank you.

Well, of course, everything you're saying could happen, but I do think that we also have to be realistic in saying we are in the turnaround phase where there is some uncertainty in everything we do. The easy thing, you know, we have been working on for, I would say, 18 months trying to do the best out of it. We still have $200 million in inventory. And, of course, we have no assurance that everything will work. So we're very conservative when it gets to any contribution of that and also, to be very honest, making sure that we can get rid of all the inventory. So there is some uncertainty there. And then I hope you see that we have taken down our inventory by 1.2 billion, and we have not tried to run after every sale we can because the most important thing for us was actually to clean inventory. So we have been extremely disciplined in not buying everything we would like to buy because if you do that, the risk is, again, that you will be over-inventoried. And as I think you can imagine is that trying to push the higher end of soccer, the higher end of running, the higher end of I would say outdoor, the higher end of basketball, we have of course shifted away from some of the commercial chances that we had because we couldn't do everything. And that's why we think that this year is about building a solid growth, building a quality growth, making sure that we and our retail partners don't need to discount And then I think we can be more, what should I say, optimistic about what the results are in 2025 and beyond. So yes, it's conservative. but it's also to avoid that we're starting to hunt things that could go wrong. So I think both your questions, both on the top line, also for Q2, yes, if the retail success continues the way it is, then we could be double digits. That is true. We are pretty certain when we look at the order book that we will be double digits in the second half. And when it gets to the margin, I again just, I hope you understand that we do not want to promise you something that we don't deliver. And that's why it is conservative, but there's also some risk to it on external factors that we, what should I say, have hanging over us. And I just need to remind you that in the last three years, we've had China going down, we have a war in Russia, we have a Middle East crisis, and we have had a supply chain issue. So I think we need to be what should I say, a little bit conservative in the way we guide you knowing that your spreadsheet doesn't say what we say. But I think that's a more, what should I say, fair way of doing it so that we can do the right things to get to double digit EBIT again in 26 and beyond. So that's the only answer I can give you. Thank you.

The next question comes from the line of Susanna Pusch, UBS. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my questions.

Just to, so maybe a question on performance and lifestyle. I mean, you flagged helpfully that lifestyle is growing really strong, double digit. Is there any chance you could tell us if performance business was at least up or was it really flattish? And related to that, maybe if you could tell us what the order book looks like for lifestyle versus performance, if you've already seen that effect spreading to the performance business. And then secondly, on the gross margin drivers, you have provided a very useful table outlining the various drivers of the gross margin. But any chance you could maybe give us a little bit more color for Q1 in terms of You know, at least one third, two thirds. What was exactly the impact of the product mix? The lifestyle business growing faster, full price sales, just like a rough idea. So it helps us a little bit when it comes to model for the remainder of the year. Thank you.

You know, I think. I couldn't ask for a better mix when it gets to what is growing and not growing. And you shouldn't be too concerned or make any thoughts about performance against lifestyle because I have to grow the heat of the brand, and I'm doing that by actually connecting to her and him through originals. And the original sales in footwear is driving the heat of the brand. and actually later pushing three stripes into apparel. And we know when the brand is hotter, it's much easier also to sell your performance product. And in the performance product, we're growing all the high end. So in running, we are growing the Audi Zero, which is the highest end of the line, and of course the Evo. In soccer, we are having the best launch ever that we have had through Predator. In basketball, we are selling both Anthony Edwards and Harden in the performance side. And on the trail running side, you know, the Gravik has been a big success. So if you measure performance as performance, then we would be up. The problem, of course, is that the way we call things is that it doesn't show up in the numbers because if you look at basketball, you know that the big part of the basketball is classics in the basketball side. So I wouldn't read any negativity into that Originals is growing faster than performance. What we also haven't done is that we haven't, what should I say, commercialized all the successes in Originals to the extent that we could have done. Again, that has been because we've been extremely disciplined in our buying because there's no way we could have reduced our inventory by 1.2 billion if we hadn't been conservative. I really, really think without, you know, talking ourselves up, we couldn't have hoped for a better sequence. Lifestyle growing, sell-through being higher than sell-in, mostly with her, then with him, high end of performance growing, and then we have the chance both to accelerate the parallel afterwards and the commercial side of it. So right now, To be very honest with you, the timing of this I think is luck and probably that we've done a decent job, but I'm very happy with that development. I'm looking at, Harm, if you want to say something about the split of gross margin. Do you?

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd like to, but I'll give you some more flavor to the gross margin, Susanna. I mean, the key topic is FX is weighing on our gross margin, right? There's no question. And we always need to differentiate the progress we made compared to the last quarter, which of course is Q123, but compared to this one, which was a bad quarter. So don't look too much on the 640 basis points, rather look at where we are right now. And again, there are benefits on trade. And of course, when I look at, there's always a mix-mix effect, right? I mean, when you sell, and we all know this, original footwear is driving a better gross margin because these products have a high gross margin. So All I can say, without going into too much detail, the combination of product mix and market mix is probably one-third of the benefits that we're seeing. A significant part of that is, of course, less discounting because we have healthier inventories. Let's call it another one-third. And then the combination of product cost and inventory provision is probably one-fourth of that. And I talked about freight, right? That's roughly where we are. But if you get into the game on what is exactly from original footwear, I assume you're getting on a slippery slope because there's so many combined effects across markets, across categories. And what you should have in mind going forward, we believe there's a three-stripes trending again through all the terrace products and compost and everything we're seeing. apparel will come as well. And it's our job also to have a healthy gross margin apparel as that starts to grow. Will that be in the second half or going into 25? We will see. But that's where we are. So what's important today is that around 50% is a good underlying gross margin that we've achieved, and we've achieved that faster than we would have expected in Q1.

Thank you.

And if I just add to that the discounting that we had to do in the past both on ecom and concept stores is of course not happening and the discipline we have on how we go to market has of course also improved so there's a lot of underlying processes that has been done to avoid discounting over buys that is helping gross margin and I think the only thing you can read out of it is also that the underlying margin for the Adidas business, if we do it right, is about 50% also without EC, which I think most people didn't believe.

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Edouard Robin, Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, guys. Bjorn, I think in the past you had mentioned that, if I'm not mistaken, that Terrace in 2022 was around 200 million euros of sales, more or less. So I think everyone is trying to figure out what percentage of the growth in Q1 is driven by Terrace plus campus. uh i don't know what you're willing to share with us but what was roughly the contribution maybe last year uh if you look at these two again terrace plus campus so we can have a sense of again what percentage of the growth is driven by that and then um if you look at you know you showed some helpful charts regarding the brand heat for you know campus terrace and it's still on the way up as you showed but if you look at more specifically uh the north america and asian market it looks obviously at terrace

um took up later than in in europe how many months behind uh you know you think you are in these big markets and therefore runway you could have that would be helpful thank you i always hate to say that people are not right but i don't think i ever talked about tariffs in 2022 being 200 million i mean first of all i wasn't here in 2022 and it was definitely not 200 million I think what we can say, and I'll repeat it, I think Adidas did a great job heating up tariffs with the Gucci collab and other collabs. And that happened, you know, mainly in 2022. And then we scaled it, you know, from a couple of hundred thousand pairs in the beginning of 2023 to be millions of pairs every month. And the scaling is still going on. We use the measures of SellTrue and, of course, the order book and then combination of different measures that we can do in social media and in customer groups to then manage the flow. And so far, there is no, what should I say, indication that Terra's search is slowing down. In addition to that, you have to remember that Compass is a much, much, much, what should I say, more bulky shoe and doesn't really, what should I say, come out of the terrace thing because it's a more skate-looking shoe. It's also more of a male shoe. And we were very surprised to see how that catched on fire during this, I would say, end of first half last year. And we have scaled that too. And as in many markets with many retailers now, the Campus is actually bigger than our Samba. All these things on the wall shows you the strength of the original business that Audi can have on the court side, but we're also very, very conscious that we need to find other legs to stand on. That's why the running lifestyle is so important for us, and that's why we are doing so many innovative projects on that to find those, what should I say, legs. The low profile thing is something that has happened over the last, I would say, 12 months from a fashion point of view that we think we can scale because we've been part of it before. We don't believe we can own the trend, but we think we can capitalize on it. That's why we've been very, very quick on bringing it out to market. And then the superstar, as I said many times, is something that only we can do. It's a shoe that you can't copy. It's a trend that stands by itself. And we think when Three Stripes is now, what should I say, scaling again and trending again, we can start to face in Superstar again as the biggest Adidas shoe in the history. But we don't have any urgencies on it. When you look at the different markets, it's obvious that Terrace was led by her. So the female consumer, I think, again, because of the Gucci collab, bled into it at the beginning. And then it's different from market to market how much he has bought into it. It looks to me like in Europe he's buying into it and he's also buying into Compass. It's the same in Asia. And then I think we need to agree that in the U.S. it's less of a buy-in from him than from her. But again, we haven't scaled Compass, for example, yet in the U.S. So it might be that in the U.S. we need Superstar before we need it in other markets. And that's the beauty now, the way we're tracking these things. is that we can play things locally in a global framework. And I think we are very, very close to the market to know what we're going to launch when. To give you the exact months, one thinks Adelaide is difficult to say. And again, the most trendy market that leads the trend so far has actually been Korea. So we're reading a lot of what's happening in Korea and trying to explore it from that. And then you can also imagine that our relationship with the retailers is, of course, improved a lot. And we're having a lot of discussions or getting input from them when it gets to phasing of different franchises. So I think we are on a very, very... much better shape than we were 12 months ago when it gets to reading the market and when it gets to discussing and deciding on the flow of the different franchises in the different markets. The success right now in our concept stores, where we are really, really doing well, is of course also a good read, because we can read both models and colors in a different way than we could a year ago. I feel for the next three quarters, I think we have a very good, what should I say, transparency on what we need to do as we move forward. we probably get more insights and agree more upon what we should do beyond that. But for now, I think we're very confident for the next three quarters.

Okay, fantastic. So just one very small follow-up for Harm. What was the amount of the inventory release in Q1, Harm?

Well, there was a small amount, so it's marginal on the gross margin overall. I mean, the comparison to last, you know, Q1 23 was significant. And that's what you see in the 640 basis points because, you know, there's been hetman on FX as well. So a significant part of the 640 basis points was the comparable, but just from an underlying what we achieved in Q1, it was not meaningful. Okay. Thank you. But make sure that in the next quarters you don't count for the comparison again because you don't have every quarter the same comparison. That's why I said it's more important what we've achieved in Q1-24. That's what we're building on. Okay.

Our next question comes from the line of Cedric Lecable. Cedric, please go ahead.

Yes, good afternoon, Bjorn and Harm. Thank you for, and team, thank you for taking my questions. Two questions also. The first one is on China. There seems to be for many companies some uncertainty and some volatility in the trends reported today. What's your maybe last update on the country, on the market, on competition? What can you say on China and what can we expect for the year? You said double digit probably, a little lower in Q1. Your latest thoughts would be interesting. And the second one is on apparel. You had a strong focus on relaunching the franchises. Apparel was also more in the excess inventory, but the excess inventory is coming to an end. So what are your plans in apparel and what can we expect? What are you seeing from the order book? Should we expect footwear to continue to outgrow apparel for a long time with a different split between the two, or do you think apparel can pick up and catch up? Thank you very much.

Well, I think if I knew the future of China and, you know, I had, what should I say, the crystal ball, I would be a very rich person. I think my read on China is that the economy is, of course, not great. There is uncertainty. But in our industry, and that's why I'm saying I don't think it matters for us so much because we need to grow anyway. We have lost market share in China through the BIS. We had a difficult time during the COVID period. And we have now a very energetic team that we've given the tools, so both local design, local sourcing, and quite some resources on marketing. So we expect them to continue to grow. And I think we said double digits. We ended Q1 with 8%. 8 is not so far away from 10. So I think so far we have delivered what we said. But it is, of course, always an uncertainty with China, with political uncertainty and the situation in general. But again, I'm a fan of the Chinese market because of the population and because of the energy. And again, I have a great feeling that we will take market share back. And every week when we develop new products, and we learn what price points we should do in what should I say categories, I think we improve. So I'm optimistic. I still think that we will grow double digit in China this year despite these uncertainties. But of course, I will also hope that the Chinese economy then will be more positive. But that's way out of my reach. When it gets to apparel, It's a little bit complicated to answer because to be very honest with you, I'm extremely happy that we're growing in footwear and not in apparel. I think if it had been opposite, it would have been much more risky. So our focus, rightly or wrongly so, has been clearly on footwear. And then given the situation in apparel in the market in general, we have been more cautious on pushing apparel. But as you now speak, we are relaunching a lot of the lifestyle apparel. So you will see in sportswear, we have a totally new set and e-range, which will hit the U.S. market this summer and then the Europe and the other markets in the second half. We have redesigned all the essentials, so they will come up with fresh executions, both on material, cut, colors, and of course also logos. I think we have new ranges in all performance categories going into 25, so the units on apparel for 25 is going to be huge. Are we going to push apparel for the sake of pushing it? No, but I do think we will start to see growth in apparel as the three stripes trend is continuing. So I think it's a little bit our own, what should I say, I wouldn't say mistake, but our own strategy that has said be careful in apparel. And then I do think that we have the vehicles to see growth again in apparel in 2025. And maybe also, when I look at the order book, also in the second half of 24, but it's not strategically important to grow apparel heavily in 24, to be honest, because I do think we need to lead with footwear also short-term going forward.

Thank you, Bill.

Our next question comes from the land of Aurélie Husson-Dumontier, HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yes, good afternoon, everyone. Two questions for me, please. The first one is on the guidance for 26. Some people say that guiding prudently could be kind of a double-edged sword as consensus systematically plays itself far above the guidance. So what do you say to those who feel that the 10% margin in 26 is a prudent guidance from you and that, like every guidance you give, it can be exceeded? That's my first question. The second one is on the Yeezy drop. The last one, could you come back on why the profitability was lower than the two previous drops from 23 when I think these time products have been sold on your online DTC channel only? Thank you very much.

Well, I think of the easy thing I've said all the time, that we started out with 500 million in inventory, and as we were selling off the best seller, the quality of that inventory, A, from a styling, from an aging, and where it's located would get worse and worse. So we always said that the profitability in the beginning would not be the profitability at the end. And as you can imagine, as you're selling down on good inventory, you have broken side fronts, you sold out all the best colors, the best styles, And that's why I think the development of that is exactly as we said all the time. So I think we have, what should I say, executed it exactly as you promised you. When it gets to my 10% EBIT, I think what I've said all the time since we started is that when we looked at the company beginning of 23, it was actually Harman, myself, we said, do we think we can get to 10% EBIT as an operating model given where we are? And we both agreed, yes, we can. And that's based on the math that we show you, the 50-52% margin, 12% marketing, 30% over and gives you the 10% EBIT. And if it's 9.8 or 10.2, I don't think that's important. I think it's important that We see it and smell it with, what should I say, the execution we currently are doing. If there is more room after that, maybe. But I think when we're coming from a company who lost 800 million in Q4 22, then to promise you 14% or 50% would be the absolute wrong thing. So we stick to the 10% as an operating margin in a business model that we all understand. And then when we get closer to it, I think we can start to discuss if there are other options getting a higher profitability. But I think it's the wrong place to speculate on it when we are where we are. We are very happy with the development of the last six months. We are very happy with the resources we have at Adidas. We think the timing for us is good, although we are in a very volatile, what should I say, economy or political situation. But the brand is strong, the resources we have is strong, and we feel we have done a decent job over the last six months. So I think we should leave it at that, and then as we get closer to 26, we can discuss if there is an upside.

Very clear. Thank you very much.

The next question comes from Jonathan Kump with Baird. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hi. Thank you. Bjorn, I wanted to ask a bit of historical context as you manage the current lifestyle and terrace footwear trend. If I look back to 2013 and 2014, the Adidas business produced about 250 million pairs of footwear each year. That grew to more than $400 billion in just the span of three or four years. And I'm wondering, could you give a little more context as you think about the history, the upside potential for the trend you're driving, and whether or not that's an appropriate framework to think about how you scale this business the next few years looking forward?

I think talking peerage 10 years ago or 15 years ago and putting that into context is difficult. I'll try to do it another way. I believe that in the last 10 years, the market has gone more casual. I think the market has become more performance-oriented. And the two biggest economies in the world when it gets to population, India and China, is growing the interest in our sector. If I look at Adi in that context, we have the biggest archive when it gets to things that can go fashion. We have a presence in all the big sports, and we clearly have the attitude of being visible in local sports. If you put that all together, I think it's our task to say that we can grow 10% knowing that what should I say, lack of performance the last three, four years. And we feel very comfortable that we have the vehicles to grow our footwear business double-digit in the mid-term future. And I think, you know, we all need to leave it with that because it's very complicated when you start to kind of break it down and you go deeper down because we don't even think like that. If we look into certain market shares in certain categories, we have single-digit market share. And I haven't met one retailer that couldn't do, what should I say, double the business that we did last year. So the room to grow is great, but then we also have competition, and, of course, we need to do our job. So we will not double our business, but I think when we say we think we can grow double-digit every year – i think we should um and and that's why you know for us at 23 billion and to grow double digits every year is two and a half billion and and and you can translate it into pairs or pieces and of course we're doing that but but i don't know how what should i say relevant that is to be very honest with you you also have to admit that the supply chain is going to be more local. I mean, you clearly see that China is going to be China for China. You clearly see now that India is going to be more produced in India. And, you know, America cannot really buy from China. So we are ending up having a supply chain that will be broken up in more local supply chains, which, again, can bring more speed and agility into our pipeline. And we don't need to push everything to one big item. So many things that we can improve. But I hope you have seen that with the change of attitude, with the change of strategy, I would say agility and speed. We have turned the heat of the brand and the commercial visibility of the brand around pretty quickly, and that shows, again, what enormous strength the three stripes and the DS brand has. And it's up to us then to maintain that and then, of course, also manage the lifecycle of these franchises in a way that we can sustain it because that is going to be the test that we can, you know.

Thank you. That's very helpful context. Bjorn, one follow-up, if I can, on gross margin. Clearly, you're signaling, you know, maybe upside to the prior guidance of 48.5 percent for the year. Are there scenarios where you could be already at 50 percent or above for the year? And are there quarters going forward that we should think more closely about the factors you mentioned that would make you be above or below that level? Thank you.

I think on the underlying business, I think we will try to keep our inventories clean. So whatever we have at the end of quarters or end of seasons or end of life cycle, we will take the markdowns as we need them. So we might be more aggressive on markdowns than we ever have done before on a lower inventory. That's one thing. I also think that the EC inventory, to be honest with you, Of course, that's going towards zero when it gets to the value of the inventory at the end. And that's why we will also there be in a, what should I say, situation that we might have to write off part of the inventory. And that's an uncertainty. So there are still, of course, an upside on the 48.5. That's August. But, again, this is not the goal for us to optimize our gross margin in 2024. You see, it's like we need to create the momentum, make the underlying business be more stable, and improve the way we go to market also for 2025 and 2026. So I don't think any of us is trying to impress you with, you know, a substantially higher margin that we promised you. But it might be a result if the sell-through and everything is going as it does today. That is correct. I think he's out.

We'll take the next question coming from the line of . Please go ahead.

Thanks very much. Also greetings from sunny Frankfurt. Two questions from my side. First of all, I noticed that you terminated or not renewed the contract with Pali. Maybe some comments on why you decided to not continue that franchise, which I think, at least I thought, was quite successful, at least at a certain stage. And at the end, what sales contribution was coming through from that corporation? And secondly... maybe for harm and you or Bjorn you also mentioned it we've seen a little bit of leverage in the operating overhead in Q1 I think in one of the previous calls you said that right now Bjorn you don't want to think about efficiency improvements and that's rather something for the second half or 2025 or so just maybe some comments as to where you think you are currently from that perspective Is OPEX seeing or going to see a significant ramp-up of this leverage in this year, in the coming quarters, or is that something we should rather be looking at in 2025? Thank you, guys.

Well, the policy decision was made in 22, so it wasn't my decision. But I think the decision is made on the following, is that ocean plastic, the way that was set up, is not scalable to, what should I say, take care of all the plastic that you need to produce, what should I say, all the polyester products. So we have gone for, I would call, the recycle polyester in general and not only go for one niche. So that's the reason for the decision that was taken back in 22. So I can't give you the number that Pali was, but, you know, we are basically going towards 100% recycled polyester. So that comes from many, many, many different resources. I think that's the reason for it. On the gross margin, I can only say that we said we would like to have momentum on the top line with the retail and the consumer before we start to kind of really look for leverage. But I'm looking at Harm, and he seems ready to answer.

Yeah, no, very clear. It's similar to what the question was earlier on the gross margin. I mean, we clearly, and you have seen that, started the year with confidence, and Q1 allows us now to do the right things, you know, for the future. And we are laser sharp on what we want to deliver and what we shared some more details on in 26 from a, you know, top-line acceleration from a gross margin that we need and also leverage of the operating overheads. But, again, Q1 gave us the confidence both on the gross margin and also what we need to invest into the brand. And yes, I could now target a leverage every quarter. What will be the size of that? But we also might decide that we need to you know, focus on the top line and get more leverage than next year. So rest assured, we are laser sharp on what we want to deliver in 26. And we are not here to optimize every quarter. That's why it's not a target in itself. But the target overall is, and that's what you've seen in the formula, we've got to get leverage over the next couple of years. And, of course, we've got to start, you know, somewhere. But, again, it's not quarter by quarter.

Got it. Thanks very much, guys. Have a good one.

The next question comes from the line of Monique Pollard with Citi. Please go ahead.

Hi, afternoon, everyone. A couple of questions from me on China, please. The first one is, obviously, your constant current sale growth in China plus 8% in the quarter, and you've mentioned e-commerce and wholesale both up double digit. So just wondered if you could give some sense of the growth rate in stores in China and what you've got planned there. in terms of improving that performance. The second question is just on the China EBIT margin, which was up really strongly in the first quarter, up 10 percentage points year on year, driven by the six percentage points of growth, margin expansion and some cost control. So we're now at a 30% China EBIT margin, just trying to understand whether that's a reasonable level to expect for the rest of the year as well.

What I can tell you from the China retail is that our own and operating stores were doing better than our franchise stores, which is again a little bit the same with that we have talked about in other markets is that own and operated did extremely well because they were full of fresh new merchandise. And I think also in China, our franchise partners, remember that's monobranded stores, but they're driven by external partners, didn't have the same freshness in our inventory. So we feel again that the proof in our own unoperated stores doing so well shows that the brand is on the very right track. And if we fill the stores with the right merchandise, you will also get the same performance. But our wholesale partner or retail partner is then getting, what should I say, the success delayed because of limited width and depth in their supply. So it's the same in China as we see it everywhere else. Having said that, for us to plan with more than 8% growth is kind of risky. So when we say 10, it is 8. I think that's in the ballpark of where we're actually happy with the performance. When it gets to the EBIT margin of 29%, that's on the high end if you look at the full year. We had a very, what should I say, clean inventory again in China. We had high sell truths, and there's many moving spots who gave you that number. But I would be careful thinking that we will deliver up to 30% EBIT for the full year. I think we have said that China will be probably our most profitable market, But we're looking a meter more at mid-20s than we do at the high 20s.

Very helpful. Thank you.

The next question comes from the line of Jeff Loverie, Redburn Atlantic. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi, afternoon team. Just one question. Marketing. Do you think given the need to localize more and given some of it in China and given more globally, some of your competitors appear to be willing to bid up for marketing assets, that you will actually be able to hold the marketing budget at 12% or so of revenues over time? Or do you think there's upside risk to that? Thank you.

No, I don't think so. I think that 12% is where you should model it, and I think that's where we are modeling it. You know, if some of the competitors are bidding up the prices on certain, what should I say, partners, that doesn't necessarily say that the whole market is following. So I think we have done the math, and you clearly see that we did not bid as high on certain assets because we don't believe that's the right thing to do, and I doubt other people will do it. So I think 12 is still a solid number on our side and plan to be at that and don't necessarily or I don't see a risk of us going higher than that. And should we, I will tell you because that would be the change in strategy. Understood. Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from . Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, thanks for taking my questions. Two quick ones, please. Could you talk a bit more about the process of taking down high-end running into more commercial lines? Where are you with that? I know you mentioned some upcoming... You've also talked a while back about investing in sales reps. I'm just wondering if you've got it getting any traction in that respect. And the second question is on LATAM up 18 percent in in the first quarter. You referenced inflation there. Could you just give us an indication of what sort of volume growth you saw in the quarter there? Thank you.

Yeah, I think that when it gets to the sales reps, we did over the last three years reduce our sales force in many areas by moving to the digital strategy. So there was a belief that you, for example, in running specialty but also in other specialty didn't need a sales force because those consumers and also retailers could buy the product digital. And of course, the proof that that didn't work, we have. And that's why we're back again in many sectors to hire specialists, the trainers, experts, sales reps, for example, in running, but also in America, also in sports like skateboard. where we hire people from the community to be part of the community. I do think that we clearly see that physical communities around different sports, especially running, is so important that you cannot replace that with digital. So that is started and is continuing, and we are much, much more active again in those communities than we have been before, and we clearly see that's a necessity also going forward. When it gets to the running, you have to remember that you're competing against brands that have been in the running community for the last years and been very focused on it. And you also have seen that there are running, what should I say, brands that have focused very much on what I call comfort running and everyday running, which also goes into the lifestyle side of it. We didn't have a good offer on that. We have clearly focused in the beginning on racing, so we have done the best shoes to run the fastest from A to B, which is the most difficult. And we've been very successful with Audi Zero and with the Evo range. We have then built, I would say, a secondary line around Supernova, which is then going against, I would call, the running specialty brands like Bruges to compete there over time. And that's very, what should I say, promising in the beginning. And then don't forget we had with Ultraboost and with all the boost balls, maybe the most comfortable running shoes that existed in the market that also went lifestyle. And we are now reintroducing Ultraboost 5, which is, I would say, our comfort running play. And you will see more new launches going forward that is clearly targeting that consumer. who doesn't want to run the fastest from A to B, but have the most comfortable shoe to A to B. And at the same time, design the shoes in materials and colors that they can also be worn with jeans. And that is always, I would say, the combination. So many, what should I say, initiatives in the running side, both on the top end, which I feel very comfortable, and then also competing against where the trend is currently. And I think we are on the good way of having the right product. And then we need to be a little bit patient to build that business. When it gets to LATAM, I'm looking at Harm because he's the master of inflation, so he will answer on that.

Yeah, there are two factors. I mean, one is, you know, quite some piece of the 80% growth is inflation-based and price increases in Argentina. First and foremost, there are other markets as well, but it's very pronounced in Argentina. And I think we get used to that as well. So part of the 18% is actually inflation in Argentina. But rest assured, there's also volume growth overall in Latin America. So we believe we're making good progress in many markets. and we're gaining market share there, and this is definitely through volume growth. So I'm not going to give you now percentages of, you know, dissecting the 18%, but there is volume growth. There's a significant part pricing and inflation in Argentina, but overall we are making good progress in a very difficult market with a lot of volatility. Thanks very much.

Alice, we have time for one last question now.

Today's last question comes from the line of Anisha Sherman with Benstein. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my question. So I have two, please. The first one is this year you've had a very successful franchise at the peak of brand heat. You've had a big increase in wholesale distribution. You've had some big or you will have some big sporting events and some easy sales. And next year you're going to be lapping all of this. And so as you think about next year's growth, Do you model tariffs growing at the same pace next year as well, or do you think maybe the new launches that are coming out this year will have ramped quickly enough to make up for a slowdown in tariffs? How are you thinking about that algo versus what looks like a very strong year? My second question is on China. I think a couple quarters ago you talked about broadening the assortment and broadening the distribution to more mass price points where you see opportunities for share gain. Is that already happening, or is that more of a 2025 opportunity? Thank you.

When we model our lifestyle, what should I say, franchises, we do that based on many factors. One is, of course, what the retailer wants to buy from us. The other one is the algorithm of what we're selling out. And then it's a combination of consumer groups and also, of course, social search groups. And when we look at it now, there is none of the franchises that we have talked about are slowing down, and none of them are actually down when it gets to demand going into 25 from the retailers. That doesn't necessarily mean that we will release those quantities. And this is what I'm saying is that behind Terrace, you have Campus. Behind Campus, you have SL72. Behind SL72, you have Low Profile. Behind that, you have Running Lifestyle. And behind that, again, you have Superstar. And the work that we are doing is market by market trying then to see what is the right flow of that And as I said, I think in the beginning, I feel we have a very thorough process in, what should I say, modeling and playing both plan A, B, C, D, within the timeframe of what we can react on. And this is a new situation for us because we haven't had five franchises working at any point in time the way it looks right now. So we will have to show you that we can do that. What we are modeling is continuous growth in the lifestyle area. But the mix of it when it gets to the different franchises in the different markets, as I said, have different scenarios. And all those scenarios are built in a way that we can react changing the production line in the factories from one model to the other model. Because remember, we run these franchises on court in all the same factory groups. So it's a pretty, what should I say, easy way of changing. When it gets to China question, we especially said that on the performance side, we saw that the local brands have gained a lot of share in performance by building products in the price point 100 and below, where we didn't really have a good global offer. So what we have done is that we build products both on the real performance side, but also on the, I would say, for example, running lifestyle on around 100. And we start to see traction on that trend. But you know, Rome is not built in one day, so of course the visibility of these models will be much bigger in 2025 than in 2024, because we started this just six months ago. So we feel that we have given our Chinese team the resources and the tools, design, development, sourcing, and marketing money to kind of cater for the local demand, which partly is different than what it is in other parts of the world. So they have a lot of creative freedom to utilize these resources to connect to the consumer. Again, I think when you look at the performance being up eight and having a much cleaner inventory and having, as one of your colleagues said, a huge improvement on the EBIT line in Q1, I think things are starting to work in a way that we're very proud of what the local team has done. Knowing that we will have to continue to take share, and knowing that the business in China can still be uncertain and volatile given all the external factors. But I think we feel a lot better today than we did 12 months ago.

Very helpful. Thank you.

All right. Thanks very much, Anisha. Thanks very much, Alice. And thanks very much also to Bjorn and Harm. And, of course, also thanks to all of you for participating in our call today. This concludes our Q1 results call. As always, if there's any questions left, please feel free to reach out to Adrian, Philip, myself, or any other member of the IR team. We're very much looking forward to chatting with you over the next couple of weeks. days and weeks. And with that, as Bjorn said, let's all enjoy the summer of sports, starting with an all-Adidas Champions League semi-final tonight. All the best. Bye-bye. Take care.