Following the announcement that it is relocating some of its manufacturing facilities from China, sports apparel giant Nike has announced its plan to reorganize its Nike Brand into a new model consisting of six geographic entities.
According to Nike it has reduced the number of management layers and placing increased focus on core category business areas for greater efficiency and stronger consumer connections.
The plan has six new geographic entities: North America, Western Europe, Eastern/Central Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Emerging Markets. The Nike Brand was previously organized by four regions: US, Asia Pacific, Americas, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
Greater China will be headed by Willem Haitink the former general managr of Nike China who will report directly to Gary DeStefano, Nike's president of global operations.
Nike stated earlier that this organizational change is part of a wider company restructuring that may result in an overall reduction of up to 4% of the company's workforce. Nike, Inc. employs nearly 35,000 people worldwide. The company anticipates completing its overall review of its organization by the end of the current fiscal year. The exact number, timing and location of positions expected to be eliminated will not be known until the overall review is completed and the employee representative bodies have been consulted within accordance with local legal requirements.