Frankfurt (awp/afp) – German sports equipment manufacturer Adidas announced on Wednesday the departure of two employees from its Chinese subsidiary, while an investigation is underway into suspicions of extensive corruption.
“Evidence was found that an employee violated the company’s code of conduct during his interactions with local suppliers,” Adidas wrote in a statement sent to AFP.
Independently, “it became clear that a second person did not meet the company’s expectations for leadership based on mutual respect and trust,” adds this press release.
As a result, the two employees “left the company”, explains Adidas, which does not give details on the exact terms of their departure, nor the alleged failings.
These are the first consequences of an investigation carried out in collaboration with independent external consultants and which “continues”, according to the group from Herzogenaurach (south-east).
It all started with an anonymous letter received by Adidas on June 7, alerting it to possible embezzlement committed by managers of its subsidiary in China.
This letter was signed by Adidas employees and its content circulated on social networks. A local manager of the company is notably accused of having received millions in cash from suppliers, as well as real estate.
Barely recovered from the turbulence after its brutal separation from the American rapper Ye for his anti-Semitic comments, Adidas wants to quickly shed light on this new compromising affair, while its sales in China took off again last year after the dip linked to the pandemic of Covid.
Adidas, which made its debut in China in 1997, now has 14 factories there and achieved 15% of its global sales there in 2023, or 3.2 billion euros, an increase of 8% year-on-year.
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