Investing.com -- Solid demand for Adidas' (ETR:ADSGN) sneakers in Europe helped offset weakness in North America in the first quarter, the German sportswear brand said on Tuesday.
Currency-neutral sales in Europe jumped by 14% during the three-month period, driven by double-digit growth at both its direct-to-consumer and wholesale options. Revenues in North America, however, slipped by 4%, which Adidas said reflected a double-digit drop in wholesale channels.
In a statement, Chief Executive Bjørn Gulden added that the company, which has been attempting to turn the page from a controversy-ridden partnership with American artist Ye, performed better than expected in the quarter.
"The growth is of course driven by our Lifestyle business right now, especially Originals footwear, but we also see that the higher end of our Running, Football and Basketball product is doing well," Gulden said.
However, he flagged that market conditions remain "volatile and not easy," but said progress is being made "everywhere." He added that the firm will not try to optimize short-term profit.
"We know we are not as good as we should be, but I feel that we are making the progress that we had hoped for," he said.
Analysts at UBS noted that Adidas had previously announced preliminary first-quarter results early this month of revenues of 5.46 billion euros and operating profit of 336 million euros. They said Tuesday's results provided "incremental detail" on these figures, including a "high quality strong underlying improvement [...] with a healthy reduction in inventories."
Shares were slightly lower in mid-afternoon European trading.