Adidas hires new managing director for France

Adidas has adopted a new approach to appoint the head of its French business. The German group, the world’s sport apparel and equipment number two and the owner of Adidas and Reebok, has in fact departed from its internal appointment policy for the top executive role in France, putting Mathieu Sidokpohou in charge as a replacement for Guillaume de Monplanet.

Sidokpohou doesn't have a career experience in the sport apparel and equipment industry. A graduate of the ESSEC business school in Paris, he has the Procter & Gamble professional hallmark, having worked for the US consumer group between 1999 and 2015. For P&G, he held regional and national executive roles in France, before taking charge of the group’s skincare and haircare business in Asia. Sidokpohou then joined perfumery retailer Sephora in Asia, as managing director South East Asia Pacific. In 2018, he returned to France, taking on the role of global vice-president at Danone Dairy & Plant Based products.

Sidokpohou is set to contribute his in-depth consumer product expertise to Adidas. Guillaume de Monplanet, who took charge of Adidas France at the end of 2018, after a few months’ stint at the group’s German headquarters, will leave the company. At the end of June, Adidas also announced the departure of Karen Parkin, the group's executive committee member in charge of Human Resources. The Adidas group recently announced that its Q1 revenue lost 19% compared to the same period the previous year, and especially that its net income shrank by 94%, down to €20 million. The group will publish its H1 results on August 6, and hold its AGM on August 11.

Adidas hires new managing director for France

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