Adidas Ag Ord

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ADIDAS-AG Q3 2024 conference call and live webcast. I am Moira, the call's call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference has been recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not 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, Maura. And hello, everyone. Welcome to our Q3 2024 results conference call with our CEO, Bjorn Golden, and our CFO, Harm Ohlmeier. In a second, Bjorn and Harm will take you through the puts and takes of the quarter. But before we go there, as always, I would like to ask you that during the Q&A session, you limit your initial questions to two in order to make sure that as many people as possible can ask their questions. Thanks very much in advance for sticking to that rule. And now before Björn is going to kick it off, we'll start with a video to make sure that everybody is in the right Adidas mood. Here we go.

I'm very happy to report a tremendous change. We show up as a brand in a totally different way.

Best in the world. Believe that. Adidas is doing something special. Maybe one of the most iconic shoes ever. I don't think any brands could do that. We have tons of innovation. On the market. Look at the shoes.

The last months on how we have celebrated sports have been fantastic.

If you want to be a sports fan in the U.S., you need to be in U.S.

sports. And if you're not in it, you're not part of the conversation at the table. Be the only brand who can combine catwalk fashion with sports.

That's where we start.

We're the only one who can do this the way we're doing it. And that's why I'm very excited about the next 12 to 18 months.

Be confident. Take some risks. And then we will win because we got this.

Hello everybody and welcome to our Q3 call. I hope you're all in good shape and in a good mood. We are in a good mood. If you followed the news yesterday, you saw that Mrs. Bonmati won the Ballon d'Or. And we are in a good mood because you can see that the store in Barcelona was already this morning decorated in honor of her. So it shows the speed that we have celebrating our athlete and also trying to utilize it commercially. So very happy to see that. The weekend was also great for running. Our Patrick Lange won the Ironman on Hawaii. setting the course record, as you can see in our EVO shoes, and Jomich set the world record on half marathon, 57.30, and Agnes won also the women half marathon in the second best time ever, 63.04. So again, I'm showing it because it shows the commitment we have to sport, and that things are actually working, and that innovations in product also is working on the athletes. Mentioning for the last time, the summer of sports was important for us. I hope also for you. I think both the Euro, the Copa and also what happened in Paris was great. Of course, our team's winning is one thing, but also the way we activated it and the mood it put both our retailers in. And I will also say to a certain degree, our partners and consumers in was great. And I think it's also part of the reason why I can say that, you know, the Summer of Sports did what we hoped for. It fueled our growth also into the third quarter. We did an ad hoc so you know the numbers, but just to repeat them quickly before Harm later goes through the details. You know, currency neutral, 10.3% growth. If you look at the underlying Adidas business without Yeezy, even 14%. Very healthy growth margin of 51.3%. If you then extrude Yeezy, you will see it's even stronger. So it's the first time that Adidas business had a higher margin than what Yeezy had earlier. Operating overhead, still a heavy investment in sales and marketing, maybe not the leverage that you're hoping for, but we said all the time that the leverage will come in the future. We feel also very comfortable that it will happen, but as you know, we will continue to invest heavily in sales and marketing. All that gives us an EBIT of $598 million, which is up almost 50% to last year, and an EBIT margin this time at 9.3%, which is in the area of the mid-term 10% we talked about, so that also gives us confidence for the future. I repeated it many times, but I have to do it so you don't forget it. 2023, a break-even and a transition for the company that we promised to make 2024 a little bit better. And I think we have. I'm proud to say that I think we delivered what we promised and a little bit more. And if we look at the regional breakdown for Q3, we see the following. You know, the big numbers are the currency-neutral total numbers, and the underlying businesses then without EC, so that's the Adidas business. And as you can see, the Adidas business in North America growing at 1%, but you also, of course, see the impact then on the EC business. This is the second quarter in a row where we have a slight growth on the Adidas business. And with the order book that we have for Q4 and Q1, I'm pretty sure I can promise you that you will see different growth numbers and be very optimistic about the near future in the North American market. Europe, still very strong, plus 18 and 21 for the underlying business. China, a lot of discussions around China and how difficult the market is. We grew 8% in Adidas business and feel we're taking market share. Very happy with the way the team works and also optimistic about the near future. Japan and South Korea are very strong at 17% of the underlying business. Latam at 30%, strong as always. Emerging markets at 17%, and that gives us the famous numbers that we grew 10% and the underlying at 14%. And I think we can say that that's actually a quarter stronger than what we had expected when we started the quarter. If you then look quickly year-to-date, not big differences, but you see there the underlying business in the U.S. is still at minus 3%, Europe at plus 19%, China plus 8%. South Korea, Japan at 11%, LATAM at 27%, and emerging markets at 20%. And that gives you then the 10% growth total and 11% for the underlying business. And again, in line with what we have promised you. If you then look at the channels, wholesale business growing at 13. And again, I want to mention here that, of course, the wholesale business in the U.S., where we had very negative order books, is now building. And for the first time, we're now looking at order books in the next quarter that are actually up. and even up double-digit. That is why we probably are more confident than we have been before. Own retail up 15%. Concept stores comping very, very strong double-digit, but now also slightly improvements in the factory outlets. You know, that has been flat or flattish because of lack of merchandise, so positive development in both of those channels. Ecom reporting minus 3%, but that is, of course, when you take easy out the underlying businesses up 25%. And it shouldn't be a big surprise to you. Most of that is now full price and very little discount compared to what it used to be. So very happy also with that development. And that gives you then the 64% wholesale and 36 B2C. And now you see brick and mortar a little bit stronger than Econ, of course, because of the minus three in the total. We continue to invest in retail concepts. I'm actually pretty proud of this because these are two women's stores. And when you see one is in Saudi Arabia and one is in Dubai, it shows how the world is changing. Needless to say, both stores are doing well. And I think women's stores only is a concept that we will try and test and work on also in the future. It is obvious that given that how many female consumers are buying our brand, that female-only stores also could and should have a future. We continue also to invest in what I say flagships and image stores. Here you see some of them around the world, LA, Seoul, Sao Paulo, Chengdu in China, and also a pop-up store in Paris. Amazing lineup in Paris when we did that pop-up stores. We used celebrities, football players, to curate inline products, and the interest was great. And I think all these tools that you see is part of continuing to build the heat, and it's, of course, an investment that we will continue to do. Maybe a little bit different, but here a sign again that we're expanding the brand into areas where we haven't had the footprint. First, on the left side, you see the future cities in China. That is the smaller cities in China, where we have then decided to go with a new format, also competing against the local brands. And as you can see on the slide, we're planning to open 300 stores during 24. I think end of the quarter, we're a little bit more than 200. And again, this is then with China-developed products sourced in China and going against the local markets. You see also franchise in markets where we haven't had the real footprint, countries like Iraq, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, and Nigeria. Again, important for us to spread the brand also into those markets that can have a growth in the future, and we do that mainly with the franchise partners. And that may be interesting for you who follow other companies. Foot Locker opened their first store also in Saudi Arabia. And when you look at the wall, we look pretty good. But if you look at the divisions, continued strong growth in footwear at 14, apparel at 5. That's similar to what we had in the last quarter. And then very, very good again at accessories. It's up double digits. And you see a healthy development also in the divisions. and that gives us almost 60 percent still footwear, 34 apparel and seven accessories. And I think we will continue to see that we will accelerate also apparel when we get into the future of both 25 and 26. Important for the brand is the balance in the different categories. Performance, where people buy our product to do sports, now up 10%, which is important. Sportswear, the more commercial packages at plus four. And then original basketball partnerships and skateboarding, which has been building the heat up 20. And of course, important for us that we have growth in all these categories. I think you would agree that compared to 18, 20 months ago, we have now a very strong lifestyle portfolio. You've seen the slide many, many times, you know, the scale, franchises, tariffs with Samba, Gazelle, and Special. Interesting to see that some of them develop different in different markets. There are stores, cities, and regions where the Samba is the strongest, but other regions, the Special is now the strongest. And surprise, there are also markets where the Gazelle is the strongest. So you see that all three franchises are still very strong. And then when you add Campus to it, four still very, very strong, growing franchises. We talked to you last time about Retro Running, almost a surprise of the success of SL72. And as you can see here, we are scaling that in line with demand, and you see that spring-summer 25 is much higher than what we did in 24, and very, very happy with that development. We talked about low profile, I think, for two quarters. Still not scaled, but we clearly see that we have an offer that is starting to show, I would say, big interest from the consumers. especially in Asia, where we have launched it, China, Korea, Japan. And I think, I think I've said this to you all the time, that when you get into March, April next year, I think this is going to be a commercial segment for us and probably also for some other brands. We took the chance to also use it as, I would say, a segment by itself at the Paris Fashion Show, here at the Stella McCartney Show, where both the athletes and the models who were walking were using low-profile models from us. And the reaction in the fashion media, if you looked at it, was very, very positive. We have talked about lifestyle running for a long time. We need to get that going. We have told you that we have a lot of offers on the way. And here you see, I will say, some of them. They come from the classic side that we talked about, but also modern, what we call Vistek. Then we have, I would say, more price-aggressive things coming out of sportswear. And then we have also lifestyle versions of the RD Zero, which you probably also saw Pharrell having at the opening of the Olympic Games. Something which is pretty cool is the Clamacool. It's a 3D printed shoe, but now in a soft version. That means that the fit and the feeling is great. We have done small launches of it already, working very well, and this is an area which we think we can start to scale slowly, because it's a totally new way. And again, it's soft, so it's actually not a shoe that only looks cool and different, it actually feels great, and that's why it's also in the Climacool family, because of the breathability. On the right side you see a Ruko. You remember we talked about that for a long time, the direction of the very thick and big exposed midsole. Ruko means walking in Japanese and it is a very, very comfortable shoe that also specially is now catering for the wide jeans and the new look. The initial reaction has been very positive and you will start to see this going mainstream during the first half of 2025. And then Superstar, the biggest shoe that the brand ever had. We will launch it as a relaunch and the white, black, black, white during 25. We will face it first in the US because that's probably where the shoe has the biggest demand and then a little bit delayed into Europe because of the lack of need, to be honest, to have another court shoe on the wall. We are doing quite some incubation already, linking it with our designers, showing it at different fashion shows, and there's a lot of activities around it. And I think all retailers that you speak to are very excited about this. We are continuing with our takedown strategy. So for any, what should I say, franchise, we go upstairs. In the higher price point with originals, we do takedowns. Not identical, of course, but with the same trend. And needless to say, in the family channel and other, I would call them commercial channel, this has been very popular and is starting to show also in our numbers. Apparel, we have said all the time that we need to lead the brand in footwear and then capitalize on apparel. You clearly see on social media and also in the, I would call it, more fashionable environments, a lot of three stripes and a lot of, I would say, cool outfits with our brand. You will start to see that also more in brick-and-mortar in 2025. Right now, the people that are on the ECOM, on the pure clays, are having a real, real nice, what shall I say, run with it. And, of course, we will then start to scale that more and more. But it's not only fashion. We are a sports brand, and as you know, our... Offering there should be as good, if not better, and we're spending a lot of time on it. I think all of us in management and in all markets agree that we need to invest even more in sports, both in the depth and in the width, and that's what we're doing. Of course, some of the visibility takes some time, but I have the feeling that every week when I watch our results and our visibility, it's improving, so I'm actually very happy. It starts with basketball, which we know is the most difficult category to be successful in the U.S. Our signature shoes are doing better and better, and I think it's fair to say right now that demand is actually higher in supply, and that is, of course, good. We know that performance basketball drives a lot of street culture in the U.S. and that you can capitalize on the new classics. And with the success currently, of course, way behind Nike, but still highly improved from ourselves, we feel comfortable that we are also there in the right direction. Running, talked about it many, many times. We feel that we have the right product for the innovation on the top side. We are now trying, and I would say with certain success also, to widen it into everyday running and to comfort running. And we feel that the reaction from the trade is good and that we have product in the pipeline that commercially can be very important for us in the future. A fun story is that the Evo 1, the 500 euro shoe that is setting world records, has also had a huge demand in certain markets. Here you see our Beijing store where we launched 200 pairs for 500 euro. People were sleeping outside the store to buy it, and they were all sold out, again, for 500 euro a pair after one hour. And now we will launch another 200 pairs for the Shanghai Marathon. They will do the same thing, and I will not be surprised if people will also sleep outside that store. Football, as we said, a great year for football. I think we did a great job with the three sealers in Footwear. I've also been very happy with the launches of our jerseys. And then it's very cool, and you actually now can see also the three-foil on the pitch with our A-clubs, and how that then goes into the fashion side of the business and creating the soccer culture, which I think we have to own. And of course, when you put the old heroes, as you can see in the back, from our top clubs in a campaign, it becomes very exciting. And needless to tell, all these products have sold out very, very quick. In general, when we're trying to combine fashion and sports, we have this unique blend that I think we can do. You see here on the left side, we're trying to put our athletes into the fashion shows. And then we're trying, with our core labs, to be very inspired by sports. You see that here. Calf by Calf, where we have soccer inspiration. And you will continue to see a lot of this going forward, both with us as Adidas, but also in Y3, and also with many of our, what should I say, co-labs, both on the fashion and the design side. The one that was very successful both on and off the court was of course when we put Messi and Bad Bunny together. A with the gazelle outside the stadium and then with the F50 in the stadium and of course Farrell starting to use the Evo 1 in the opening ceremony at the Olympics but also in his normal life of course extremely important for our visibility and image. So again, I think 24, we promised you we would be a better company. I think after three quarters, we probably can say that we are. And to give you a little bit more insight on the numbers for Q3, I now hand over to Harp.

Thank you, Bjorn, and good afternoon and good morning from my side as well. And I would like to give you some more details now on the P&L, but also on the working capital and the balance sheet. So starting with the top of the P&L, first on net sales, Bjorn mentioned already, solid growth with 10% currency neutral growth in Q3, and underlying, which of course is more important, and forward-looking, 40% currency neutral growth. So definitely a good quarter on the top line. Even better, the cross-profit, for the first time in Q3, In many quarters we went to 51.3%, so two percentage points up. If I decompose it a little bit more on the next chart, you actually see that there was a benefit of product cost, better product cost, partly because we are scaling tariffs and overall our volume growth that we have, the freight has normalized. Of course, the original mix is positive in the overall product mix, but most importantly, the discounting either on e-commerce or retail stores and to hotel as well to make money for them as well. That's very important. It's much, much better. We had some help in inventory provisions because last year, as you remember, we still had some elevated inventories and some aged inventory. So we sold some of the products, so we had some tailwind on this one. But you shouldn't also forget that the FX was still, you know, significant. It was more than a percentage point negative. You know, that is not just the US dollar, but there are other currencies as well, whether it's the yen or the peso, some things, you know. went against us. But again, and for the first time, Yeezy was negatively contributing to their gross margin. So underlying, you should look at the 51.3. It's even slightly better if I take Yeezy out of it. So very, very happy with the gross margin development towards where we want to be also in 25 and 26. If I go further down, And I know you're interested in the operating expenses, but before I go there, I want to be very, very clear what happened in the P&L this time, because, as you know, in the release, we settled with Ye all the claims that we had on both sides in Q3. That's why we had to release another operating income around $100 million. These were accruals, given the risks that we have seen in prior periods, so either in 22 or 23, where we accrued these things and given the settlement, we had to show that and release it in other operating income. At the same time, you see in operating overhead expenses that we did another donation of $100 million. So it's pretty much a wash, two of these, and I'll come to that in a second again. So it's also important to notice that over the course of the last 20 or 21 months, we now have either donated already or have accrued and committed to our Adidas Foundation around 250 million from the Yeezy proceeds as donations, and that is significant. Of course, not all being spent, but there's still a lot of good we can give back to societies. That will leave us with $50 million in our operating profit from Yeezy based on what we have sold in Q3. To be very clear on the bridge, because all of you will ask how solid is the $598 million from an operating profit point of view, again, what I just explained, if we look at the other income, the accrual is at $100 million, and then the donations, it's pretty much a wash. And then, of course, we have 50 million of Yeezy profit that you now can say, okay, the real underlying operating profit is closer to 548 million. But be reminded, we always said, you know, going forward to generate leverage, two-thirds of the leverage in the operating overheads will come from our net sales growth. and one-third will be measures into the infrastructure or personal expenses, right-sizing it. And rest assured, every quarter we're doing something, you know, without talking a lot about it. But also in Q3, it's definitely to the amount that is slightly bigger than what you see in easy profit. So you can make up your own numbers, whether it's now 548 or 600 million, but we have some in the ballpark depending on how we look at the one times. Now, going further down, there were some concerns of the financial expenses in the past. I also want to decompose this one on the financial income. It's pretty steady. You know, we still get some interest given the cash on the balance sheet. Not much change from Q3 last year to this year. What really has changed are the financial expenses. Last year, remember, we had a significant impact from hyperinflation adjustments in Argentina and Turkey. That's the majority of this. Now it's more normalized. It's $25 million. And going forward, it will not be as good as the $4 million net, but again, also going in a good direction when it comes to the net of the financial income and financial expenses, leading to a much better IVT of $601 million. And we always said there was a second concern. Our tax rate became pretty significant last year. Sometimes even above 100% would need some explanation, but now in Q3 it was 22%, or year-to-date it was actually 26%, which also is a good indication for the full year, quite honestly. We are now back to a normalized tax rate, and of course we'll try to improve that going forward. Given these two factors on the net financial income and the taxes, we now see a net income of $469 million or a basic earnings per share of $244 million. That is, of course, a good development in Q3 as well, and with that, the earnings per share is actually 75% up. So much to the P&L, very happy with the developments and more to come. When it comes to the balance sheet, again, inventories are very well controlled and very disciplined in all the markets, still going through to 3% down. Even more importantly, when you look at the development of this, Only 50 million of Yeezy inventory left by the end of the quarter, so end of September, and rest assured that will move as we speak, definitely in Q4. It will get to zero very quickly or pretty much as we speak. But you also see there were some concerns, do we have enough inventory because it's so low right now and so healthy that we can deliver the growth that we are expecting in Q4 and going to 25. If you really Deduct the Yeezy inventory, you actually have $250 million more than in Q1, and rest assured, $4.5 million overall is a good inventory base, and especially healthy inventory and not a lot of aged inventory in that. So I'm very happy where we are. Of course, given the growth of the wholesale business now, we also, our receivables went up by 13%, pretty much in line with the growth of wholesale. And to see an indication that accounts are paying well, which is an indication on what we are buying from our suppliers, 31% up, doesn't concern me, because this is what you will see now, you know, 4.5 billion is probably the lowest inventory you will see for the years to come. and expect that to be slightly up in Q4. But you also see that we need to buy some volume and have expectations of growth, of course, in Q4 and going into 25. But overall operating capital also highlight when I go back to Q3, 23. We are now at 20.6% operating working capital. When we talk about being a healthy company in 26 from a P&L point of view, I always said when we drop below 20% of operating working capital, we are very, very healthy and managing our inventories and overall balance sheet very, very well. So also very happy where we are. Lastly, when it comes to cash and cash equivalents, despite the fact that we repaid the $500 million bond that became due in September, we still have $1.8 billion on the balance sheet by the end of September. That, of course, helped us on the one hand to increase our cash, as you just saw, but also reduce our adjusted net borrowings. More cash, a bond being repaid, so a billion improvement with some give and take. Also very, very healthy. That helped us to get our net leverage ratio significantly improved over the last 12 months and now almost at the smaller than two times the financial target that we set ourselves. That also led to Standard & Poor's removing the negative outlook to a now stable outlook, which is also significant. testament of the improvement that we have done on the balance sheet. So overall, very happy with the development, inked you through both on the P&L, on the balance sheet, and then lastly also on the operating working capital. And with that, over to Bjorn again.

Thanks, Ram. Just a quick, I mean, you know these numbers anywhere. You remember we started the year a bit 10%. And on the operating profit, we started around $500 million, and now we are at around $1.2 billion. And the assumptions for this is the following. You know that the remaining yeast inventory, which is $50 million at the start of the quarter, will go down to zero. But you also know that this inventory is now being sold off to retailers and to To be very honest, we're very close to having done that these days, so we should be very, very clean very, very soon. We can promise that we are zero when we get to the end of the quarter. We will continue to have some effect headwind, as Hans said, and then we will continue to invest heavily in sales and marketing because that's what we're feeling in E2, and I think you agree to that. I have two thoughts on E3. On the top, you see the sales effect we see, the 150, 200, 200, plus the expected 50 in Q4. That gives you around 600 billion in sales for the full year. And every quarter, one, two, three, I gave an operating profit of 50 million. We expect zero in Q4, and that gives you then the contribution of 150 million. And as you can see, the inventory going from 200 million at the beginning of the year, then to zero at the end of the year. If you then look at the guidance, as I said, we started at $500 million. Then with all the easy drops, we generated $150 million of EBIT. And then the underlying business will be $500 million. I hope this is a simple way of looking at it. And then internally, we say that the time is now. I think we have a quote internally that we have a generational opportunity to have, you know, a new generation of consumer hooked to our brand. I think we have all the ingredients to actually achieve a business, again, that Adidas deserves, and we do that, I think that we need to be so close to the consumer that we need to accept that there are differences between the different regions, and that's the business model we are now looking to set up over time. I was very happy to see how we launched ZNE, our new apparel collection, because it's a global collection, and with the content of actually marketing, it was very local, and we were able to generate all the celebrities all over the world, and I think we need it in an excellent way. Actually, I'm very proud of that. Remember our roadmap, as I said, 2024 being a better company, next year being a good company, and I think with everything that we can see, the product that we have presented, Q1 and partly for Q2. We look strong, and that's why I would almost be ready to say that we are or will be a good company in 24. And then, as you know, the goal for 26 is not only to be good, but also be healthy. And we define healthy, you know, back two years ago, saying we need to grow double-digitally. around 12% in marketing, and then, of course, get our leverage to 30% overhead, and that gives you the famous 10% EBIT. I think all of us are convinced that we can achieve that. I have a couple of updates in the organization. You probably saw that some days ago that Arthur Hult will leave us in the board. He was the chief commercial officer, been with the brand for almost 25 years, done an excellent job, but then decides not to extend his contract. We together then decided that Mathieu, as you see here, taking his role. Mathieu has been our GM in France, he's been the GM in Southern Europe, and he's been now the GM for the European business, and you see the impressive numbers. I'm very, very happy to add him to the list. You see also that, you know, Michel has been on the board for a while now taking care of global human resources, people and culture. Harm has then, in addition to finance, gotten supply chain and tech. But you, as you said, you in global sales, and I then take care of the brand for the time being. And then not in the legal board, but being in all board decisions and being in every meeting is horrible. and I think this board is a very strong board with the competences that we need. One more change. Jan Runal, after 33 years in our company, being the face and I would say the voice of the brand, has decided to go for early retirement. Big thank you to him. He has been very loyal and a very, very living very close to headquarter. We then decided that Sebastian, who has also been now 10 years with the brand, I think he was five years with the brand even earlier, now being charged with investor relations, that he will then also take on corporate communication because we think that makes sense to put that together. And with that, Sebastian, I think I hand over to you. And congratulations.

Thanks very much, Bjorn, for the kind words, for the wishes, and for the opportunity to lead the combined communication functions going forward. I'm very much looking forward to working with strong and very experienced teams, both on the IR and corporate comm side, to drive our internal and external communication going forward. Before we move to the Q&A part of this call, please allow me one more comment, because I also want to make sure to congratulate Jan on a fantastic career. I had the privilege of working with him for more than 15 years in different roles, and I have to say I really enjoyed working with him over many, many years. during good times but also during challenging ones and I always felt this was a great partnership between Jan and myself, between his team and mine throughout all the years. So I want to say thanks very much Jan for this and all the best for the future. And with that I'm going to hand back to Maura 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 one on your telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered a queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode and eventually turn off the volume from the webcast while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Edouard Aubin from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Well, hi, guys, and congratulations, Sebastian. Great news. So two questions for me. Bjorn, on the top line first, I know it's very premature to talk about, you know, 2025 guidance. So I'm not going to ask you for this, but if you look at kind of, you know, out of the next four to six quarters, you know, what's your kind of sense, you know, in terms of your ability to more or less maintain, you know, the current underlying, you know, pipeline growth that you've posted in Q3? I don't know if you're willing to enable to comment on that. So that's question number one. And then question number two is, It seems that Adidas as an organization is casting a wider net, so to speak, in terms of your presence, in terms of distribution channels, in terms of sports, you talked about US sports, in terms of offering more SKUs, more price points with the takedowns and so on. So obviously that's going to have a positive impact on top line, hopefully. But to what extent that could negatively impact your profitability and your ability to reach a 10% plus EBIT margin in the medium term? Thank you.

Hi.

I think it's pretty obvious that the way we have developed expect to grow around 10% double digit in the future, right? So we don't see any, what should I say, signs that we will go away from that. There might be differences in categories, in channels, in markets, but our goal is, of course, to continue that momentum because we think that's what the brand deserves and that's also what I would say we think we have the resources to do and that's what we will try to do. I think when it gets to divisibility of the brand, meaning what categories, how many articles in different markets and what sports, yes, I think you're right that you will see more of us because to sell more, You need to do more. But I don't think that will have an impact on our earnings negative. I think it's actually positive. Again, we believe that there is a big difference between America, Europe, and, for example, China and India, and that we need them to cater for the right product and the right activities in those markets. With our size, we think global SKU count doesn't really matter. If I produce locally for China in China and I produce internationally for Europe in different factories, it has no negative or positive impact other than I hopefully have the right product. And remember, our biggest enemy is, in my opinion, not the going-in margin on having efficient SKU counts, but it is having too much inventory that no one wants to discount. So I feel, you know, Harm showed you the inventory at $4.5 billion. We've been growing with that inventory. We have a very healthy order book. We have expanded the SKU counts the way you count it. But you look at our gross margin, and I think we feel very, very good where we currently are. So the goal is not to lose profitability by being more right to the consumer. It's actually the other way around. And I think we still feel comfortable to have a business model that everything we see can cater for the double-digit debit margin.

Next question is from Susanna Puth from UBS.

Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my questions, and congratulations to Sebastian. So just maybe first of all, North America, so you're trying to grow, I think, faster than was anticipated. So any chance you could maybe share with us what has driven that? Would you say, you know, is it over the market or was it more brand specific? And if so, what type of products, you know, have driven that? So any incremental color in North America would be very helpful. And then a second, I would say, question is on OPEX. So it was very helpful you showed us some of the sort of drivers and some of the, let's say, you know, moving parts within OPEX. But I think we've seen some news flow about, I think, you closing the Runtastic offices in Austria and a couple of other bits. So were there perhaps any other special items, one of maybe restructuring costs in OPEX that we haven't discussed so far? And just very quick follow-up, so it's not a question. The double-digit growth for SAFE that you mentioned for next year, And let's say going forward, is it X-Easy or With-Easy? So that's just a clarification. Thank you.

I think it was a question. It wasn't a follow-up. You have three. I'm in the North American. If you think about the story we've been telling you over the last 18 months, we clearly said that we started this period with a lot of bad inventory in the U.S. We started in, I would say, very negative brand heat. So we said that... to turn around in North America will take longer. What has happened now is that because of the success we've had in our own channel and with the inventory that the retailers are buying into, they have started to give us more space. And that is translating for the first time now Q4 going forward in a positive order book for North America. We haven't had that, you know. So we've been able to achieve a flat dish sales plus one, plus, business the last two quarters by actually selling more on a negative order book. And right now, of course, the retailers are always trying to find the brands and the product where they can sell more and make more product, and that's what we're seeing. And that's across, I would say, categories and different distribution channels, both on the performance side, but it's also on the lifestyle and the commercial side. So it's in general that I think our offer... The brand heat of Adidas in the American market is being perceived as positive. That's why we feel comfortable about the growth with the visibility that we see in the North American market. And it had to come that way, right? Are we then at the end of what we need to do in the U.S. to become, you know, mid- and long-term a very strong brand? No, we have a lot to do. But I think we put the elements together. We have a new management driven by an American. We have our famous office in L.A. that sits on a lot of talent. We have cleared now all the Yeezy product. So we're kind of starting again on a fresh new start with an inventory, which is also much more healthy. So I think we feel a lot, lot better than we did 12 months ago and are therefore, I would say, pretty optimistic. When it gets to the double-digit growth, I think the difference, the 600 million or whatever EC product is 3% kind of, right? So it's either 13 or 10 if you do the math. And let's hope that we achieve both because, you know, we will at least be double-digit. And then if it's 10 or 13, we will see, right, when we go through the course. OPEX, I hand over to you, Harm.

Yeah, thanks, Susanna. And you're absolutely right. I mean, Runtastic is part of what we did in Q3. And for the respect of our employees, I didn't want to mention it again, but as you questioned it, yes, Runtastic is part of some of the one-times in Q3. But we also did some impairment of some of the, you know, IT infrastructure, also given the digital changes that we did. We always do some balance sheet cleanup here and there. And, of course, we have some element of severance as well. So if you add it all up, It's definitely more than the $50 million underlying operating profit from Yeezy. But again, we don't want to talk about restructuring reserves or whatsoever there in Q3. So we just do the right thing in the right way at the right timing. And rest assured, we will continue to do that also in Q4. I'm not going to give you an indication how big it could be, but we will continue to do these things at the right time and in the right way. And as I said earlier, all eyes are on 25 and 26. We want to make sure that we use every quarter to get somewhat better. And, again, two-thirds of the leverage will come out of the net sales growth, and roughly one-third will come out of the right measures. And, again, it will not be one big one, but there will be smaller ones here and there. But that's really part of it.

Thank you so much. question is from Peralda Dania from RBC. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everybody. So my first question is just on the EBIT guide. The full year 1.2 billion guide implies a break-even Q4 number. On my take on board everything you've said, however, I just wanted to understand whether there is conservatism baked into that and whether we should just straight reverse the $100 million IAS 29 impact in the prior year, which becomes a straight benefit of the same amount. My second question is also a financial one. Apologies. But the capex run rate for the nine-month period is 300 million. However, I think you've guided on a full-year basis to 600. So could you just help us understand whether you plan to spend the remaining 300 million in a single 4Q period or whether that capex number on a full-year basis could land below guidance? And just following up on Susanna's question, I don't think you answered her third question on whether the 10% growth is incoex easy. Thank you.

Yeah, probably starting on the CapEx.

Again, when I'm confident about some conservatism, it's definitely on the CapEx side. With the $300 million in the first nine months, we're not going to spend another $300 million in Q4. Again, that doesn't mean we're not going to invest, but it's part of the, I would say, discipline in the overall company that operating overhead leverage starts with investing more cautiously and where it really makes sense given where we are. Because you don't need to remodel every factory outlet every three years or whatever which people like to do. So there's some level of discipline in there. And of course we have built an infrastructure over the last couple of years That was probably bigger than what we needed in the short term, but we have great warehouses around the world. We have a great IT infrastructure. We have a great digital infrastructure. So, again, most of the CapEx goes into some of the S4 HANA implementation and some remodeling and some new stores. But, again, that's pretty much where we are. When it comes to the EBIT guide, I get that on the operating profit. If you deliver 1.28 billion in the first nine months, it looks conservative. If you want to get to it for the full year, at 1.2 billion, the guidance. But please remember, I mean, in 22, we lost more than 700 million in Q4. Last year, we lost, I believe, $377 million. And yes, Q4 is not our strongest quarter. We try to get better. But as I mentioned also, we always do the right thing in the short term for the long term. And if you see some opportunities here and there, all eyes are on 25 already. And that's why we want to make sure that we deliver a solid and good quarter. And we will definitely look at that when the time is right.

I'm not answering the third question. I think what we said is that the easy business is about $600 million, so it's If you look at it, we guide on the underlying business, but who knows? We will also shoot to reach the 13, but we haven't guided for 25 yet. That's why we answered the way we did. We think that the company needs to grow double-digit to get the leverage right, and we will do what is right depending on how the world is moving in the different markets, but we will not try to, I say, and prostitute the brand just to reach a number that we promised you on the top line. So be a little bit patient with us. We have a very strong order book for Q4 and Q1 and Q2, actually, what we have a visibility of. And then let us manage that in the progress that we will guide more specific when we get there. But the DDoS brand needs to grow double digit in the midterm to get where we want. And as I said, I think we can achieve that. Sorry, apologies for that. Thank you.

You don't need to apologize.

Next question is from Jurgen Kolb from Kepler Shavro.

Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks very much, Sebastian. Congrats, first of all. All communication, all in your hands. Also, congrats to Jan, obviously, for having been for such a long time at a company. Quite unusual. Two questions from my side. First one on maybe for Ham. After Normalization of the tax rate, working capital doing fine, EBIT growing, so cash generation seems to really speed up. Can you remind us on your stance when it comes to share buyback and what criteria should be fulfilled to maybe revive the share buyback program? And the second one for Bjorn, you mentioned you're seeing that Adidas is gaining another generation. Maybe you can elaborate a little bit on that. Is that rather an age group? Is that more fashionable customers? Is that on a regional basis? Or what have you seen here that you can maybe provide us with additional information on what that really means? Thank you, guys.

Yeah, I'll start. Of course, the whole new generation is a wider than only age, but we all have to see that there is a consumer group that both from a fashion and performance side has not been our brand. There's a big brand that they've been with for a long time on the lifestyle side. And there are other, I call them niche brands, that have been on specific areas, if it's fitness training or it's running. And what we clearly see now because of the heat of our footwear is that that consumer, especially her, is now hooking up with our brand for the first time. And if we do our job well, I think we can work with her and, of course, also with him, but especially with her, think the brand has seen this for a long, long time. You know, you had, of course, a success in many different areas, but then it was, for example, easy on the high end, or it was soccer as a category. I think we now see with a consumer group that through the success of original footwear on the high end, we are able then to take that consumer into many categories and that's the goal and that's why I think it's an opportunity that the brand hasn't had and remember it is with a fresh inventory with a, I call it, new energized management group that says we have all the resources that we need, and actually with a, I would say, demand that is going across channels and across categories and across markets. And that's very unique. It's not only China or not only D2C, but it's wider. And I think that is kind of a very lucky situation to be in that to look into the midterm, and that's why we say internally that it's now up to this group and, of course, the people we have in different functions and different markets then to take the opportunity and not be afraid because, you know, these opportunities doesn't come that often. That's why we use the generational opportunity as a wider, what should I say, topic, and I think it's actually a very good word. Harm?

Yeah, good question, Juergen. And of course, I'm on record that I would like to have $2 billion on the balance sheet in cash, and there's no doubt we will get there very quickly. And then I have a good problem to have. What to do with the cash? But you're absolutely right. I mean, the operating profit will go up, the interest or the financial expenses will go down. The tax rate will continue to improve, so we'll definitely pile up more cash on the balance sheet, which is a good problem to have. So what can we do with that? First, we invest significantly into Eintracht Frankfurt, so it needs to be financed first, of course. And then secondly, we want to be a solid dividend payer, right? And we have done this the last couple of years, but we want to go back to our policy of 30% to 50%, or let's call it an average of 40% of net income of continued operations should go back to the shareholders. And then maybe in 2026, we need to talk about share buyback. But right now, it's not the problem that we try to solve. And we shouldn't forget we live in a pretty, you know, volatile world right now. So it's good to have a strong balance sheet. I'm not worried about, you know, exceeding the $2 billion. And maybe come up with some other ideas what to do better with this one. But that's for the future. It's a good problem to have. But the first priority would be investing with the business. And then secondly, being a solid dividend payer. Then we will see. Very wise investments. Thank you very much.

The next question is from Warwick Okina from BNP Party Bike Farm. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Bjorn, I just wanted to go back to the comments you made on the last conference call when you said you had pulled forward inventory and you thought you might struggle with supply. Could you just talk about how you managed this in Q3 and how you're managing it into Q4? And then my second question is just around the progress you're making, winning shelf space in specialty running. Perhaps comment on any progress you've made in the last quarter or two. Thank you.

Yeah, I think what I said last year is that last quarter, We were, of course, needing to use the inventory we had, and if we had orders on items that were meant to be on Q3, we actually delivered them to please the retailers. We've been doing that all the time, to be honest. But as you can see now, the inventory has been building, so we've been very good at delivering. I hear about delivery issues in the industry, but I do really believe that we've done a tremendous job of chasing which I see production and we've had very good partners being able to fulfill whatever we have placed the orders. So I don't see any issues that we have too little business we need to do in Q4. But I don't need to tell you that when you have franchises that you see in the lifestyle area that it's certainly exploding, and they're exploding in different facings in different markets, you are short sometimes. We have also taken inventory that was meant to our own channels and giving it to retail partners that are pleased they need. So there is some flexibility in our system, and especially in the U.S. where we started with a heavy negative order book We've been able to hit our numbers, of course, by working with all inventory and also rescheduling inventory, whatever it is. So it's, I would say, a big effort of the team to actually be able to do it. But you don't need to be afraid that inventory will be an issue not to hit our numbers, I think. And the second was? Specialty running is improving, but you remember two years ago or whatever, they just left specialty when it gets to actually servicing their accounts with people. It was meant to be a D2C or a digital play. We are hiring people in all the markets, both from a sales, but also from, I would say, an expert and being in the running community, and we see actually share in running specialty, improving both on what is selling out and selling in. But again, I don't need to tell you, when you look at our product and how they perform on the highest level, then of course we should have a higher share. But I think this is where we need to also be a little bit patient and not only look at the top line and chase every business, but make sure that we service the specialty to retail in a way that they're happy with us and take the time to build back the relationship that we had. But I think also here in most markets, we have the tools and definitely we have the product. Thank you.

Next question is from Monique from Citi. Please go ahead.

Hi. Afternoon, everyone. Two from me if I can. Firstly, on inventory, Obviously, you've talked about your inventory being in a really good position, and Bjorn, you just mentioned being happy with the level of inventory in terms of fulfilling the future demand. I think a comment that had been mentioned this morning was that about 80% of the inventory you have on book now is for current or future season product. And I just wanted to get a sense of how that compares historically and sort of what that could mean for full price realization. And then the second question, just A question for you, Harm, on the tax rates going forward. I think you'd made a comment when we were going through the presentation that you were suggesting that the level of the current tax rate is sort of where we should expect going forward. Is that right? Is that how I should understand it, that the 3Q tax rate should be the level as we go into next year? Thank you.

Yeah, first on the inventory, I mean, I don't want to give you a detailed percentage. Yes, we are very happy with the current level of inventory. If one cuts in transit and most of the inventories actually fall with the 24 inventory, what we have in all the inventories brings them at 24. If you go into 23, it's almost like, you know, What do you say in English, negligible? I'm not sure it's the right word. But it has, you know, there has been heydays where it has been as, you know, healthy as it is right now. But if I compare it to the last, I would say, three years, it has never been that healthy and that current. So that's why we are very happy with the aging of the inventory, probably as good as it can be. And then secondly, it's also the right amount of inventory for the growth that we want to fulfill in the future or the demand that we want to meet. So very happy with the inventory. On the tax rate, just to be precise, when I said year to date, it's 26%. That's an indication also for the full year 24. And, of course, as we expect, you know, higher profits in 25, the tax rate will further improve. But, again, don't get carried away. You know, given that we have a pretty normal tax rate with 26, it will improve gradually, maybe the percentage point or here. But it's not jumping now from, you know, 26 to wherever. But you know what our historical rates have been. And, you know, over time, not immediately 25, but over time we get back to these rates. That's what we would expect. But, again, to be precise, 26 was the indication for 24, and then it will be slightly improving going into 25.

Excellent. Thank you. The next question is from Jeff Lowery from Redbird. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi there. Just a two-part question, please, on North America. I was very struck that you made more money in LATAM on approximately half the revenue in this quarter. Is the answer for US profitability in the end simply sales and scale, or are there improvements in the operating model and or gross margin that you can deliver? And second, could you talk about the terrorist trend and where we are with it in North America specifically, please? Thank you.

I think the tariffs are delayed in the U.S. about six months, both on the high end and also in the commercial channels. We also, because of the lack of orders from the trade, did not do a lot of risk buys for the U.S. market because we didn't want to get into trouble. So we have given away quite some top line in the U.S. in the last six months because we didn't have the inventory that we could have had. In hindsight, I think that's positive because that means that there's a trend that we prolonged and it gives us time then, you know, to launch more franchises with a healthy inventory. So I don't think that has harmed us at all. And I would... I would say also that the superstar, especially with the male consumer, is probably a shoe that will do excellent in the U.S. and will, I would say, strengthen the connection to what we call the U.S. street culture together with what we're doing. in the American sports and also on the U.S. basketball market, which we, I think for the first time in a long, long time, have higher demand than we supply on our signature shoes. So I think that's when it gets to the profitability, I mean, there's no doubt that the U.S. market is the most difficult one to run profitable for a European company. That's why there's quite some adjustments that we need to do compared to other markets in the business model. That's why we tried to tell you for a while it's having an American management with authority to invest in American sports, also have a dedicated supply chain on certain products, and the design office in L.A. connecting to the street culture. I think it's a lot easier to be successful in LATAM for any brand than it is to be successful in the U.S. for a European brand, and I think that's what you see in that EBIT number. Having said that, we are all very optimistic about the future in the U.S., given the setup and the structure that we now have in place.

Thank you very much. Thanks, Jeff. And, Mara, we have time for two more questions.

Thank you. The next question is from Adam Cochrane from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thanks for the question. The first question is, in terms of your good pipeline, you've got a good inventory position, but given how much benefit you've had from better full-price sell-through in the last year, is there much more to aim for in terms of better full-price sell-through into 2025, because a lot of the other drivers of gross margin should be sort of moving into your favor as well, hopefully. And if you can do more on full price as well, it should be quite a good outlook for gross margin in 2025, is that fair? And then secondly, on the business model and operational changes that you've planned and you've outlined, how far along this journey to I presume most of the changes will be complete by 2026. It feels like you've done more in 2024 than you originally anticipated. If you have to draw a sort of timeline with percentages on, how much of the change do you think has happened in 2024 and needs to be done now in 2025 to get to your ideal business model by 2026? Thanks.

Your last question is a difficult one because, yes, we have done quite some changes in the attitude on how we have attacked the possibilities with the consumer, but that doesn't mean that we feel we are in the end of being a better company operationally. I think we have broken our system and the way we were supposed to work by effort instead of organizing it. So we still have some work to do in the business model of optimizing it and It's about the philosophy again. Do you need one big supply chain or do you have four smaller ones within a frame? And do you dedicate your product development to China, India, US, and Europe in a different way? And we are gradually moving towards that as the world is also moving. So I don't think we'll ever be finished with the changes in the business model because you will always try to optimize it. So I can't answer you. I think the attitude in the company of being consumer-centric and being product-focused and consumer-focused has happened maybe quicker than we thought. And if you have a scale from zero to 100, maybe we are at 75. But we still have quite some things to improve the way we go to market around the world, to be honest, especially probably for the U.S. market. And then the full price, yes, I think we need to be a little bit careful because when we talk about full price, there are markets like the Chinese that are never really full price. If you look at e-commerce, there are activities all the time. If you look at e-commerce in general, you know, you have to work. with a certain commercial discount policy. So I'm not so sure that we can get more full-price sales the way you measure it, because you need to also be pretty aggressive with the market. I think we've had the luxury now that our lifestyle product has been hitting very, very high sales. and have been able to, what should I say, carry the margin. And I think the addition we would have is then, of course, to sell more apparel because apparel normally carries a higher margin, and we haven't utilized that yet. So that's a positive time. I think a year ago or 18 months ago, we said that we had to be between 50% and 52% margin without Yeezy. Now we've reported 51.3 already, so I think we have achieved that. Do we see upside on the margin going forward? Yeah, I think there is an upside. But, you know, we don't like to promise anything before we can prove it. But the price points in the market that we see for the different products together with the sourcing prices and the cost should, you know, allow you to ask, have a higher margin if you do everything right but I don't want to promise it to you to be honest with you and then you know the more you're investing in the smaller sports and the wider you go and you're offering the less margin you might have on the edges so I think the 51-52% margin is a good number to have as a planning number and then we can see if we can improve it or not but yes there is some upside That's great. Thank you.

Today's last question is from Aurélie Husson-Dumottier from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yes. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my question. I have two as well. The first one is on current trading by region. Any big discrepancy to signal versus Q3? Any market becoming more or less promotional? If you could give us an idea of what's going on in October, that would be great. And my second question is on the TELUS trend that has been a key growth driver in the recent quarters. Could you give us an idea of how much this category or this family of products represents in total group sales? Is it mid-single digit, high-single digit, double digit? Any color of that would be very useful. Thank you.

We don't normally give updates on trading, but October is good. Let's put it this way. We don't see any big changes in demand for our product, neither in our D2C business nor in our wholesale business. Again, we try to manage the demand as good as we can and are now focusing on building the right assortments for both spring and fall. 0.25, and we feel we are in a very good, what should I say, direction. When it gets to the size of the tariffs, again, it depends on what you define as tariffs. Again, there's a lot of, what should I say, definitions of tariffs and of different price points. I don't think we will ever let tariffs a category be so big that it's dangerous for us. And you have to remember that although it's very, very strong in creating the look of the brand, of the top end, it is not necessarily where the only growth is. We are growing in, I would say, all categories and all types of product outside tariffs as well. So I think I leave it by that because whatever I answer, you will be wrong, and I wouldn't like to be wrong.

Thanks, Aurélie. Thanks, everyone. I think we'll leave it by that for this call. So thanks very much to Björn. Thanks very much to Harm. This concludes our Q3 2024 conference call. As always, you can reach out to either Adrian, Philipp, myself, or any other member of the IR team if there's any questions that you would still like to ask. We're very much looking forward to seeing and meeting many of you over the next couple of days and weeks as part of our roadshow activities. And with that, thanks very much for your participation. All the best. Bye-bye.

Take care.