Rising Chinese salaries pushes Adidas to look elsewhere: report

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

FRANKFURT (AFP) — Adidas, the second-biggest sportswear company in the world, feels that Chinese salaries are now too high and it will transfer some production to more competitive countries, its chief executive said in an interview on Monday.

"Salaries, which are set by the government, have become too high" in China, Herbert Hainer told the business weekly Wirtschaftswoche.

Chinese production of Adidas sportswear, about half of the group's total, "is going to decline," Hainer added.

"We have already opened our first factory in India. Countries like Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam will be added," the Adidas boss noted.

"Production will also return to former Soviet republics and eastern European countries," but not to Germany, Hainer said.

© 2008 AFP