New York (AFP)

The equipment manufacturer Nike, which suffers the full brunt of the plant closures of some suppliers in Vietnam and Indonesia and the problems of transport congestion, has warned that some of its products may in the short term not be available immediately.

"The lost weeks of production, combined with longer transit times, will lead to a shortage of inventory (of shoes and clothing) in the market over the next few quarters," Group CFO Matt Friend told reporters. 'a conference call.

Nike had already warned in June to expect the transport of its goods to be affected for several quarters.

“Unfortunately, this situation got even worse” during the period from June to August, Friend said.

The delays accumulate at the level of the ports as the trains, there is a lack of containers and personnel.

Before the pandemic, it took about 40 days to transport a product from Asia to North America.

About 80 are needed now.

During these three months, the group also had to deal with the closure of the factories of several Asian suppliers.

While activities have resumed in Indonesia, "almost all footwear factories in Vietnam remain closed by the authorities," Friend said.

And nearly half of the clothing factories still haven't restarted.

"We have already lost about ten weeks of production," said the CFO.

Once reopened, it will take time for factories to return to normal operation.

- Lowered forecasts -

Nike has therefore lowered its forecasts: the group now expects sales growth of around 5% for its accounting year ending at the end of May 2022, against 10% to 15% previously.

The company believes that the inventory situation should improve as we approach the accounting year starting next June.

The share of the American equipment manufacturer lost more than 3% in electronic exchanges following the close of the New York Stock Exchange.

The group also announced Thursday of contrasting quarterly results for the period from June to August, its first accounting quarter.

Its profit rose 23% to $ 1.87 billion.

The comma brand, which had suffered at the height of the pandemic of the closure of stores and the suspension of most sports activities, at the same time saw its turnover increase by 16% to 12.25 billion dollars .

It was driven both by sales in its own stores, which rebounded from the same quarter in 2019, and by continued growth in online sales.

But analysts were expecting higher revenue as the start of the school year approaches, at $ 12.46 billion.

Demand for Nike products remains "incredibly high and our results for the first quarter would have been even stronger if we had not had to deal with supply chain congestion," said Friend.

This "has led to a lack of available products," he added.

The group also indicated that the costs of its products had increased "mainly because of the increase in transport costs".

The company's overhead costs increased by 15%, in part due to higher salary expenses.

© 2021 AFP