Only a minimal increase in sales, a veritable collapse in profit: Adidas has had a miserable financial year. Nevertheless, the prematurely retired CEO Kasper Rorsted can look forward to a severance payment in the double-digit million range. According to the annual report presented at the company headquarters in Herzogenaurach on Wednesday, the Dane received 12.3 million euros in compensation. Plus 200,000 euros per month for the next 18 months as so-called “compensation” for not being allowed to join any Adidas competitors during this time. Makes a total of 15.9 million euros.
From October 2016 to November 2022, Rorsted was CEO of the second largest sporting goods manufacturer in the world after US rival Nike for a total of six years. At that time he had come to Adidas from the consumer goods manufacturer Henkel, as the successor to the long-standing Adidas boss Herbert Hainer. After strong early years, Adidas has continued to fall behind rivals Nike and Puma in terms of sales, profit and profitability development, especially over the past three years. In addition, there were delivery problems, problems on the important Chinese market and with the controversial US rapper Kanye West, which Rorsted could not get a grip on.
In August 2020, the supervisory board had prematurely extended Rorsted’s contract by five years to 2026. A decision that now costs the company a lot of money in retrospect. In August 2022, Rorsted announced his early departure from Adidas. When a successor was found in Puma boss Bjørn Gulden, he finally resigned in November 2022. Gulden took over as CEO on January 1st.
Seven weeks later, he is beginning to reorganize the board of directors: Roland Auschel, a veteran Adidas manager, is leaving the company; the Swabian worked for the three-stripe brand for 33 years, the last ten on the board. Auschel is responsible for global sales there.
Arthur Hoeld, currently Managing Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will take over his job on April 1. Hoeld’s name had also been mentioned repeatedly in the past when it came to Rorsted’s possible successor. In the end, Gulden won the race. The former Puma boss now takes over the position of the brand board in addition to the chairmanship. Incumbent Brian Grevy will leave the company. This means that the Adidas board of directors will be down by one position.