Adidas Plans 3,000 Stores In China By 2020, Will Also Open More Specialty Stores

A day after Adidas AG said it expected sales and profits to register double-digit growth in 2016, the German sportswear brand announced Friday plans to open 3,000 stores in China in the next five years. The announcement was made at a news briefing in Beijing by the company’s China head Colin Currie, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Adidas already has 9,000 stores in China and would expand to 12,000 stores by 2020, Currie reportedly said. The sportswear giant also plans to increase its presence to over 2,200 cities in Asia’s biggest economy, more than twice its current reach, according to the Journal.

China is the fastest growing market for the German company globally, and it would focus on the country’s smallest cities, which it expects to continue urbanizing despite economic challenges, Currie said.

“We are cautiously optimistic, but we’re far more on the optimistic side,” he said, the Journal reported.

The German apparel giant also plans to open more specialty segment stores in China, the Shanghai Daily reported. It aims to increase the number of women specialty stores to 20 from the current four by 2020. In that time, the company also wants to add another 300 stores to its current 350 Originals brand stores.

Due to rising interest in sports and athletic wear in the country, Adidas saw its revenue from China, including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, increased by 16 percent on a currency-neutral basis during the fourth quarter of 2015, while full-year sales in the region jumped 18 percent to 2.5 billion euros ($2.74 billion), according to the Shanghai Daily.