Adidas CEO says additional tariffs would raise inflation and dent volumes

HERZOGENAURACH, Germany (Reuters) – Additional U.S. tariffs on imports would trigger costs to rise and customers to purchase fewer merchandise, Adidas chief government officer Bjorn Gulden mentioned on Wednesday because the enterprise navigates increased levies applied by President Donald Trump’s administration on China, Canada, and Mexico.

Adidas has not estimated the potential affect of U.S. tariffs on Vietnam, its prime manufacturing nation, which President Donald Trump has threatened with increased levies, Gulden mentioned.

“If there are 25% duties coming and it’s on extra nations, inflation will go up and volumes will go down,” Gulden advised journalists after reporting outcomes. “We all know that, however how a lot? I imply, we can provide you a quantity, however the one factor we all know is we must regulate very, in a short time.”

Vietnam produces 27% of Adidas’ whole quantity of merchandise, adopted by Indonesia at 19% and China at 16%.

However Gulden shrugged off the affect of upper U.S. tariffs on Chinese language items, saying solely a small portion of its product bought within the U.S. is made in China.

“We have now lower than 5% of our volumes going to the U.S. is (produced in) China,” he mentioned.

(Reporting by Helen Reid and Linda Pasquini)