German sports equipment manufacturer Adidas is investigating a vast affair of alleged corruption in China valued at several “millions of euros” by local employees of the group, the “Financial Times” (FT) said on Sunday. According to the business daily, a letter allegedly written by “employees of Adidas China” accuses several Chinese employees by name, including an executive in the company’s marketing budget department.
The document, which circulated this month in China on the social network Xiaohongshu, an equivalent of Instagram, puts this budget at 250 million euros per year. The letter is no longer visible on the platform on Sunday but a supposed copy, the authenticity of which AFP was unable to verify, is used on several accounts.
Cited by the FT, the document accuses Adidas staff of having received bribes from service providers mandated by the German group. An Adidas China manager is accused of having received “millions in cash from suppliers, as well as property including real estate.”
According to the Financial Times, Adidas received a letter on June 7 warning the three-stripe brand of “potential violations” in China. The group could not immediately be reached for comment.
Adidas, which made its debut in China in 1997, once had more than 10,000 stores, according to the local press. But in recent years the group has been faced with the rise of local brands including Anta and Li Ning. Adidas sales in the country nevertheless increased in the first quarter by almost 8% year-on-year, according to results published in April.
