Adidas Closes Last Company-owned Factory in China

German sportswear giant Adidas (IW 1000/241) said Wednesday it was closing its only company-owned factory in China, although the country would continue to be its "main global production site" via subcontractors.

A spokeswoman confirmed that the site in Suzhou, near Shanghai, which employs 160 people, would close at the end of October for "efficiency" reasons.

She said this was part of a broader strategy on the part of the firm to subcontract production, with the company now owning "only a handful" of plants itself worldwide.

The firm has 300 factories belonging to subcontractors in China, where sales rose by 23% last year to 1.229 billion euros (US$1.509 billion), she said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012