Sporting goods manufacturer Adidas will move its French headquarters to Paris after more than 60 years in Alsace. The company announced this at an extraordinary works council meeting at the end of last week.
The move should be completed by 2024 and the 140 employees in Strasbourg will be merged with the workforce in Paris. Currently, the 270 employees in supporting functions of 750 employees in France are divided between the two locations in Strasbourg and Paris.
Along with Tokyo, Shanghai, Los Angeles, New York and London, Paris is one of six key cities for Adidas, where global trends and important stimuli are created. Therefore, the step of the sporting goods manufacturer, which has also consolidated locations in Germany, is a logical one.
Restructuring at Adidas France
Adidas cited a restructuring of work processes after the pandemic and the proximity to important partners as the reason, according to Mathieu Sidokpohou, Managing Director of Adidas Southern Europe. In order to maintain the current status, the location in Strasbourg is to be closed completely; According to the Strasbourg daily Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, Sidokpohou even rejected a co-working space proposed by the workforce there.
However, the Strasbourg employees can count on home office regulations and therefore do not have to commute to Paris every day, which takes two hours even on the high-speed train.
“Our goal is to involve all our Strasbourg colleagues in this new chapter. To achieve this, we will completely innovate the way we work – so everyone stays anchored in Strasbourg and as they continue their careers at Adidas. For the Strasbourg teams, this project will offer the possibility, by mid-2024, either of an accompaniment to the move or, for those who do not want it, the implementation of real flexibility in the organization of teleworking in order to minimize the possible impact from Adidas in a statement. According to the newspaper, however, managers fear that this will negatively affect team building.
The consolidation project was presented to the members of the works council for their comments. They also have to consider a new location in Paris and two future moves.
“It is a real medium-term internal change support project that will require time for discussion and negotiation on the terms and time for implementation to support and facilitate all employees in these possible changes. Working groups will begin next week to discuss needs and best practices.