Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted is stepping down in a surprise departure

Kasper Rorsted, the chief executive of Adidas AG, is stepping down.

In a surprise announcement Monday, the German sporting-goods and footwear brand said Rorsted and the company’s supervisory board have agreed that he will “hand over the CEO position during the course of 2023.” A search for his successor is already underway, and Rorsted is expected to stay on until his replacement is found and appointed, the statement said.

German-listed shares of Adidas AG were down almost 4% on Monday following the news.

Adidas has faced significant supply-chain and geopolitical challenges since the start of the pandemic. In a statement about Rorsted’s departure, supervisory board chairman Thomas Rabe cited “three challenging years that were marked by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions,” and added that the time is right to “pave the way for a restart.”

“The past years have been marked by several external factors that disrupted our business significantly,” Rorsted said in a statement. “It required huge efforts to master these challenges.”

Rorsted has been in the CEO role since 2016. He joined Adidas from the German consumer-goods giant Henkel, where he was known for cutting costs.