Adidas set for Beijing, pledged to Jakarta

Running shoes and sportswear maker Adidas, involved with the Games since 1928, is determined to use Beijing 2008 to secure a bigger slice of the Chinese market, where it is in strong competition with Nike.

"The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will serve as a platform for the Adidas brand to become the leading sports brand in China in 2008," says Erica Kerner, director of Adidas's Beijing 2008 Olympic programme.

"Impossible is Nothing" is its integrated Olympic marketing campaign that "aims to bring sport engagement with Chinese consumers to a new level".

It is the German giant's biggest marketing campaign ever created in, and rolled out in, a single market.

Through a combination of TV, print, outdoor, public relations, digital, point-of-sale and roadshows across the country, the campaign includes various platforms enabling consumers to get close to Adidas athletes.

Adidas expects group sales to exceed 1bn euros by 2010 ($1.55bn; £790m), helped in part, it hopes, by a potential sporting boom in China post-Games.

"The importance of sports and the sporting goods industry will further increase in China," says Ms Kerner.

For the Adidas group, China will continue to be an important manufacturing and sales market, with nearly 50% of all its products being produced in China.

In other news, Adidas Group has pledged to maintain its business in Indonesia despite the recent termination of supply contract from a major local supplier, Tootoo.com learned this week.

"Indonesia remains a key sourcing country for the Adidas Group," the company said in the statement as quoted by major newspaper The Jakarta Post.

Adidas has decided to end ties with Indonesian supplier PT Prima Inreksa Industries by the end of this year as the latter failed to meet orders from Adidas due to financial difficulties.

The two sides have announced they agreed to find the best solution to address the current situation and the job security of some 6,500 workers.

"We will continue to engage and support the factory during this difficult period," the Adidas Group head of footwear sourcing, Horst Stapf, said in a statement.

Prima reportedly is unable to pay some 37 million U.S. dollars in debt to state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia, while its former owner left the company.

According to the statement, currently there are more than 60 factories manufacturing footwear and apparel products for Adidas in Indonesia.

In 2006, Adidas ceased contracts with its suppliers PT Dong Joe Indonesia, PT Spotec and PT Tong Yang Indonesia, leaving some 18,000 people out of work.