Retail

Adidas CEO: Our biggest concern is Brexit's impact on the European economy

Key Points
  • Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted said his biggest concern is the impact of a potential Brexit.
  • Rorsted urged that British lawmakers hold a second referendum on the matter.
Kasper Rorsted, CEO, Adidas
Adam Galica | CNBC

The CEO of Adidas is sounding the alarm about Brexit's impact on European consumers where the German sportswear maker does nearly a third of its business.

In a sit-down with CNBC's Sara Eisen on Tuesday, Kasper Rorsted said the company's "biggest concern is really the European impact of a potential Brexit because it's very often discussed as an isolated event, but it will have an overall impact on the European economy.

"Europe is about 30 percent of our business. We're getting most or entirely all of our growth outside Europe."

Rorsted, who said sales slowed in Europe in 2018, urged British lawmakers to call for a second referendum on the U.K. leaving the European Union.

Last year he called it "the most unwise economic position Europe has taken in the last 30 years" and would harm consumers. 

A deadline for the U.K.'s exit from the EU is less than three months away, but British lawmakers have yet to settle on a deal since the country voted in 2016 to leave the bloc.

"We think the best thing that could happen would be a revote on the Brexit," Rorsted said from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "It is weakening the European economy. It's weakening the English economy and we just think it's a very, very bad decision that will have very severe consequences in the long term."