By Francis B. Allgood
fallgood@scbiznews.com
Published May 19, 2010

When Adidas Group generated a record $3.4 billion in sales for the first quarter, with sales up 14% in the U.S., folks in Spartanburg County were cheering. Adidas today officially opened its two distribution centers off Interstate 85 totaling almost 2 million square feet.

“With this state-of-the-art facility and our over 1,200 member team, we’ve established a foundation for the company’s sustained success in the U.S.,” said Glenn Bennett, head of global operations for Adidas.

In 2007 Adidas announced plans to relocate and expand its Spartanburg-based operations. The first building, 1,096,700 square feet, opened in October 2008. The second facility, an 803,563-square-foot facility, opened in October 2009. A third building on campus serves as a call center.

Each of the two distribution centers has an expansion capacity of 25%.

This is Adidas’ largest distribution center and serves North America. Eighty percent of all products can be delivered in three days or less in the U.S. The distribution centers hold more than 700,000 products, including Reebok items, a brand acquired by Adidas in 2006.

“One of the fastest growing categories in the U.S. now is ‘toning’ (shoes), and we have a 40% market share within the Reebok brand,” Bennett said.

According to Gov. Mark Sanford, pictured wearing a pair of Adidas shoes at the grand-opening ceremony today, Adidas’ announcement today is one of five over the past year that have included 1,000 jobs or more.

“South Carolina is No. 1 in the Southeast in this entire notion of industrial or distribution capacity recruitment, and actually fourth in North America,” he said.

Bob Henriques, head of business solutions and warehousing, said 60% of Adidas and Reebok product comes from the Port of Charleston. He would like to do more from South Carolina’s port.

“We’ve got more volume than there are carriers that just call on Charleston,” he said.

The capital investment for this project was $150 million. The facilities house more than 15 million units of apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories.