Adidas plans to pass Nike by 2008

Adidas, the world's second-largest sports goods company, intends to surpass rival Nike in China within two years. Adidas plans to double the number of stores it has in China to 5,000 by 2010 whilst reaching a sales target of US$1.28 billion, the South China Morning Post reported. Chairman Herbert Hainer said Thursday the company came "relatively close" to matching Nike's US$600 million sales in China last year, pointing out that Adidas' sales in the country had doubled annually for the past four years. Adidas bought former rival Reebok earlier this year for US$3.8 billion and wants to quadruple the number of Reebok stores in China to 2,000 within six years. More than half the 200 million pairs of shoes and 300 million other pieces of sportswear sold by Adidas last year were made in China and the company has no plans to shift its manufacturing bases to potentially cheaper alternative locations in Asia.