Adidas to meet sales targets with 2014 FIFA World Cup

Frankfurt: After meeting its 2013 sales targets, Adidas, the German maker of sportswear and equipment, also expects 2014 to be a successful year too.

"Currency-neutral sales shot up by 12 per cent, which was above our expectations. This proved that we met our revised full year targets from September, despite a further worsening of currency exchange rates," said Herbert Hainer, Chief Executive of Adidas.

Its bottom-line profit for the whole year jumped by 49 percent to 787 million euros ($1.08 billion). Sales, on the other hand, slipped by 2.6 percent to 14.492 billion euros, largely due to currency effects such as the strong euro.

"From an operational perspective, there is no doubt that 2014 will be a successful year for us. But as currency headwinds had a significant negative impact on our results in euro terms, there might be possibilities of the same in 2014 as well," cautioned Herbert Hainer, Chief Executive of Adidas.

"Nevertheless, driven by our dominant role at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, we will generate high-single-digit currency-neutral growth,’"tinted Hainer.