Sportsgear maker Adidas-Salomon has posted a drop in second-quarter operating profit after a difficult US market depressed sales.
Operating profit fell 10 per cent to €62 million, compared with €69 million in the same quarter last year and expectations of €68 million according to a Reuters poll of 20 analysts.
But the group repeated its 2003 targets for 10-15 per cent growth in net profit and 5 per cent growth in sales.
Second-quarter sales fell to €1.4 billion from €1.5 billion, broadly in line with market forecasts.
But order backlogs for its Adidas brand were up 4 per cent by the end of the second quarter. North American backlogs were down 12 per cent.
Adidas, second only to Nike in the sports gear sector, described conditions in the key North American market as extremely difficult and said it expected 2003 sales in the region to decline in currency-neutral terms.
But it said higher than expected revenues from Europe and a solid performance in Asia and Latin America would help it reach its overall 2003 net profit and sales targets.