Adidas to Outsource Winter Sports Production

The world's second-largest sporting-goods manufacturer, Adidas-Salomon, plans on cutting nearly 10 percent of the French workforce at its winter sports division as it shifts production of skis and snowboards to China and Romania. The company, based in the southern German town of Herzogenaurach, will cut 160 jobs over the next two years. It is the latest consumer-goods manufacturer to shift jobs overseas to countries where labor costs are lower. The latest cuts come after the company announced last month it will slash 60 of its 100 mass-manufacturing jobs in Germany. Most of the remaining 2,500 jobs in Germany are in administration. Most of Adidas-Salomon's shoes are made in Asia, where the company benefits from lower wage costs and the falling dollar, which brings the purchasing price for materials down.