Expensive dollar does not stop company
For the first quarter of its new fiscal year, Nike managed a 8.414 billion dollar (7.5 billion euro) turnover, up 5 % from in the same period last year, despite an expensive dollar. If exchange rate fluctuations are ignored, turnover would even have increased 14 %. The Nike brand contributed 7.9 billion dollars (+ 15 %, 7.1 billion euro), while its affiliate brand Converse contributed 555 million dollars (+3 %, 450 million euro).
Particularly its Chinese business went great: sales grew 30 % to 886 million dollars (nearly 800 million euro). Nike reaped the benefits from a training program for its sales people, which teaches them how to present products to the customer.
Not only did sales increase, its gross margin also increased 0.9 % to 47.5 %, which resulted in a 1.2 billion dollar (1.1 billion euro) net profit, up 23 % to last year’s first quarter.
The near future also looks bright for Nike: orders for the past quarter (in dollars) were up 9 % compared to the same period in 2014 and Chinese orders were even up 22 %.
