Adidas flying high despite global uncertainty

ADIDAS HAS shrugged off the effects of recession, the Japanese earthquake and rising raw material costs to raise its sales and profit forecasts for 2011. Sales in China (up 38%) and Russia (up 23%) have propelled the company to promise global increases of 10%. Adidas had previously predicted falls of between 15% and 25% in Japan but CEO Herbert Hainer said that Japan – whose Adidas-sponsored women’s football team won the World Cup last month – had shown “considerable resilience” with sales only off by 1%.