Adidas receives 300 billion won from Trump tariffs and achieves best performance ever

(Berlin = Yonhap News) Correspondent Gye-yeon Kim = German sports goods company Adidas achieved its best performance ever by receiving a large amount of tariffs back from the U.S. government.

Adidas announced on the 20th (local time) that sales in the third quarter of this year were provisionally calculated to be 7.252 billion euros (about 10.8 trillion won), a 9% increase from last year, and operating profit was 1.08 billion euros (about 1.5 trillion won), a 37% increase.

Both sales and operating profit are the highest in the company's history on a quarterly basis. Adidas explained, "We received most of the tariffs we claimed for refund this quarter. The refund amounted to approximately 200 million euros (approximately 300 billion won), contributing to our gross profit margin."

Adidas raised its annual operating profit forecast for this year from 2.3 billion euros (approximately 3.4 trillion won) to 2.5 billion euros (approximately 3.7 trillion won) due to strong performance in the third quarter.

The sporting goods industry suffered a blow when Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam and Indonesia, where its factories are mainly located, were hit with high tariffs of around 40% from U.S. President Donald Trump in April last year. Companies are receiving back the tariffs they have already paid following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in February that ruled most of Trump's tariff increases invalid.