Nike is to reduce its overall global workforce of nearly 35,000 by approximately five per cent in a bid to control costs. Five hundred jobs are to go at the company’s world headquarters near Beaverton, Oregon.
“Our new structure sharpens our consumer focus globally to drive continued growth while positioning NIKE, Inc competitively in today’s marketplace,” says Mark Parker president and CEO of NIKE, Inc (pictured). “We remain a growth company and we know these changes have created a stronger organisation that will enable us to invest in our most significant opportunities. However, the decision to reduce our workforce has been a difficult and challenging one as it affects our colleagues, team-mates and friends.”
Nike announced a two per cent fall in revenue to $4.4 billion in its financial results for its fiscal 2009 third quarter ended February 28, 2009. It also reported worldwide futures orders for athletic footwear and apparel, scheduled for delivery from March-July, totalling $6.5 billion, 10 per cent lower than such orders reported for the same period last year.
By region, futures orders for the USA were down one per cent, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) decreased 25 per cent, Asia Pacific declined one per cent and the Americas were down four per cent.
Third quarter revenues for the EMEA region decreased 14 per cent to $1.2billion, compared to $1.4billion for the same period last year. Footwear revenues decreased 12 per cent to $693.8million, while apparel revenues fell 17 per cent to $415million and equipment revenues dropped 24 per cent to $77.1million.
