FRANKFURT, March 7 (Reuters) – German sportswear group
Adidas forecast sales growth of 5-9 percent in 2012,
saying emerging markets and big sporting events like the
Olympics and European soccer championships would help offset
uncertainty around consumer spending.

The world’s second largest sporting goods group behind Nike
grew sales and earnings to record levels in 2011, it
said on Wednesday, driven by demand for its three stripe
products in emerging markets in eastern Europe and China.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Retired architect Christian Neunert never dreamed he would be taking part in protest rallies for the first time at the age of 71.

Yet on Monday evening, for the fifth week running, he will ignore his long-held view that only grungy tree-huggers take part in demonstrations, and travel with friends from his home in Mainz to Frankfurt airport to demand Europe’s third-busiest airport shrink in size.

HAMBURG, March 1 (Reuters) – German consumer goods
group Beiersdorf AG predicted a return to profit
growth in 2012 after it axed unprofitable lines and focused
investment on its key Nivea brand.

The Hamburg-based group, preparing for the arrival of a new
chief executive next month, has been losing market share to
rivals in recent years, and is revamping its product line under
pressure from controlling shareholder, the Herz family.

FRANKFURT, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Frankfurt airport
operator Fraport and airline Lufthansa
succeeded in preventing a walkout by air traffic controllers
that would have brought Europe’s third busiest airport to a
standstill on Wednesday morning.

Fraport teamed up with Lufthansa and air traffic
controllers’ authority DFS to seek a temporary injunction after
trade union GdF urged control tower staff to join walkouts by
airfield employees at Frankfurt airport in a row over pay and
conditions.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German union GdF, representing around 190 striking airfield workers at Frankfurt airport, is considering asking other union members to join in the strikes to put more pressure on airport operator Fraport.

“We will discuss this evening whether other union members, such as the tower controllers, will join the strike in a show of solidarity,” a union spokesman told Reuters on Monday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German sportswear company Puma is aiming to grow faster than Adidas in soccer, its chief executive said, as the group won the kit contract for the Slovakian team from its arch rival and extended a partnership with Italy.

“We are the number three in soccer and we want to pick away at the gap with Adidas and Nike,” Franz Koch told Reuters in a telephone interview from Genoa, Italy, on Monday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German sportswear company Puma (PUMG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is aiming to grow faster than Adidas (ADSGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in soccer, its chief executive said, as the group won the kit contract for the Slovakian team from its arch rival and extended a partnership with Italy.

“We are the number three in soccer and we want to pick away at the gap with Adidas and Nike (NKE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz),” Franz Koch told Reuters in a telephone interview from Genoa, Italy, on Monday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Frankfurt airport operator Fraport made a plea for the GdF union to resume talks over pay as a strike by airside workers entered its fifth day at Europe’s third busiest airport.

“We have sent them a letter proposing new talks without preconditions. Only that they must stop the strike first,” Fraport Chief Executive Stefan Schulte told journalists at the airport on Wednesday.

FRANKFURT, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Frankfurt airport
operator Fraport made a plea for the GdF union to
resume talks over pay as a strike by airside workers entered its
fifth day at Europe’s third busiest airport.

“We have sent them a letter proposing new talks without
preconditions. Only that they must stop the strike first,”
Fraport Chief Executive Stefan Schulte told journalists at the
airport on Wednesday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Airlines including Deutsche Lufthansa will have to cancel hundreds more flights to and from Frankfurt on Friday as a strike by airfield workers continues at the airport, Europe’s third-largest hub.

Trade union GdF on Thursday asked about 200 apron controllers who guide planes in and out of parking slots to walk off the job for 14 hours on Friday in addition to a seven-hour strike that started at 1400 GMT and resulted in 150 flight cancellations.