Nike (NKE) said late Thursday that it is laying off about 2% of its workforce, or 1,600 people.
The House of Jordan – but no longer Tiger Woods, who this week launched his own clothing line called Sun Day Red (check out his lower leg in his second leg at the Genesis Invitational yesterday, which he attributed to back spasms in the post-round -Presser returned). ) – had about 83,700 employees before this pink slip round.
CEO John Donahoe blamed the need to unlock investment in running, women's clothing and the aforementioned Jordan brand. This is part of the company's new $2 billion restructuring plan over the next three years. In other words, there will likely be more layoffs at Nike this year, next year and in 2026.
It's interesting to see Nike investors yawning over this potentially margin-boosting cost cut. The stock has fallen 2.3% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 5.5%. (It's down a modest 1% in premarket trading.) I think that says it all about the real investor concern Nike has right now: the sales growth outlook, particularly in the key market of China. Just look at the scenery!
Restaurant Brands (QSR)-owned Burger King China's results were disappointing this week and the company is pulling back on investments in the country until things improve. Fits in with what we've heard in recent weeks from other consumer goods companies like Levi's (LEVI) on China.
According to a note from Stifel that I received this morning, one of their analysts met with P&G CEO Jon Moeller yesterday and there was a lot of talk about China's weakness related to their higher-priced SKII skin care product line. Nike derives about 15% of its annual sales from China. If the country doesn't do well in terms of Nike's sales, you can be sure there will be a setback on US shores.
And it looks like Nike's U.S. workers are paying the price for their executives' failure to execute forecasts correctly.