Adidas now to make $1 shoes for Indians
Adidas, a German sportswear giant, is shifting its one-dollar shoe making project to India from Bangladesh for high cost of production here, newspaper reports said yesterday.
Last year, the company signed an agreement with Grameen Group in Bangladesh for producing shoes costing one dollar a pair mainly for rural people.
Adidas is to launch a shoe costing one dollar in India despite the failure of a similar venture in Bangladesh, company CEO Herbert Hainer was quoted by AFP as saying.
Unlike in Bangladesh, large production would be possible to meet the growing demand of Indian market, he said.
"The shoe will be sold in villages through a distribution network," Hainer said, adding, "We want the product to be self-funding," AFP quoted him.
He, however, gave no indication of when or where it would be launched.
Adidas had announced plans to sell one-dollar shoes in Bangladesh last year, but Hainer said it had not worked as expected.
"We sold 5,000 pairs during a test phase but we made only losses," he said. "The shoes cost us three dollars to make and we had to pay $3.50 in import duty" AFP said quoting Hainer.
Adidas earlier this month said it was raising its full-year earning targets after a stronger-than-expected third quarter and first nine months.
It was now pencilling in sales growth of close to 12 percent instead of 10 percent previously, while earnings per share were projected to rise by nearly 16 percent.
"Our brands and products are resonating with consumers around the world like never before," Hainer said on November 3.
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