Nike India fires 20% staff, starts downsizing global operations

Nike | Unlike the other companies in this list, Nike didn't even have a garage, to begin with. The company which was initially known as Blue Ribbon Sports operated out of founder Phil Knight's car trunk in 1964. While Knight made the shoes, his coach at the University of Oregon, Bill Bowerman started testing them on athletes to provide a competitive test. After two years of operating out of a trunk without any retailers, Nike, today, is amongst the biggest manufacturer of sports apparel and accessories with a valuation of over $110.3 billion. (Image: Reuters)

American sports equipment major manufacturer Nike has fired nearly 20 percent of its employees in India as a part of its downsizing exercise, reported Economic Times.

However, the fired employees are given an option to join its operations in Southeast Asia.

The downsizing is a part of company's global restructuring where Nike will be focusing on 12 cities in 10 countries to achieve 80 percent of its projected growth by 2020.

"In June, we announced that as part of Nike's move to align the company against the Consumer Direct Offence, a strategy that allows us to serve our consumers faster and more personally, there would be workforce reductions, and that has been the case in India. Our headquarters in India remain in Bangalore with two other offices in Delhi and Mumbai," a Nike India spokesperson told the newspaper.

Earlier, Nike CEO Mark Parker had announced that Nike has been planning to cut about 1,400 jobs as part of a restructuring to sell more shoes directly to customers online. In addition, reduce the number of sneaker and clothing styles production by a quarter and focus on hot sellers.

According to media reports, the Oregon-headquartered sneaker maker had said earlier that the Nike had closed around 35% of its stores in India.

A drop in the company's sales in Indian market would have added to the current measure. Nike's sale saw a gradual decline over the past two years from Rs 803 crore in FY15 to Rs 764 crore in FY16, according to data from Registrar of Companies (RoC).

The company, which entered the Indian market in 2005, also recorded an increase in its losses from Rs 101 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 170 crore in 2015-16, said the report.