Trends come and go, one trend is here to stay, sport. Sport is central to every culture and every society. Sport is a key prerequisite for health and fitness and fans. More people than ever before do sports, watch sports, and want to showcase a sporting lifestyle. This is good news, ladies and gentlemen, for the adidas Group. Everything we do is rooted in sport, the importance of sport goes far beyond that. Sport has the power to change lives. On that note, shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, friends of adidas AG, on behalf of my colleagues on the executive board, I'd like to welcome you very warmly to our 2015 Annual General Meeting at the City Hall in Fürth. I'd also like to extend a very warm welcome to everyone following this AGM online via our live webcast. I greatly appreciate your interest in the adidas Group.
In my report today, I'd like to cover the following topics. First, the business performance of the adidas Group in 2014. Secondly, our new strategy for the next five years up until 2020. Thirdly, our outlook for the current year 2015. I'm sure that most of you will have read, seen, or heard a lot about the adidas Group last year. You will know that for us, 2014 was a year that brought many successes, but also some negative surprises. Allow me to get straight to the point. We did not achieve the financial goals that we had set ourselves at the beginning of 2014. As the company's CEO, I'm just as disappointed about this as you are as shareholders. Nevertheless, last year was not nearly as bad as it was sometimes portrayed to the general public.
In fact, 2014 once again saw numerous successes for the adidas Group, please allow me to begin my review of the year by talking about those successes. Don't worry, I'll talk in detail about the things we could have done better, and more importantly, the lessons we learned for the future. First, our successes, please note that all the figures I'm going to mention reflect results from continuing operations, excluding goodwill impairment. The adidas Group is and will remain a growth company. We are one of only two truly global sporting goods companies. With revenues of EUR 14.5 billion, we are more than EUR 10 billion ahead of the number three in the global sporting goods markets. The gap has widened again in 2014. We are particularly strong in emerging markets across the globe.
Since 2010, we've grown our sales in emerging markets by an impressive 70%. In 2014, we grew our currency neutral sales 6%, supported by a strong fourth quarter, in which we finished the year with double-digit growth rates in most markets. Our core brand, adidas, by far the biggest and most profitable part of our business, grew at a double-digit rate in 2014, reaching record sales of EUR 11.8 billion. Reebok grew in every quarter in 2014. What's more, when I come to our results for the first quarter of 2015, you will see, ladies and gentlemen, that Reebok has been on a solid growth path for two years now. It wasn't only the German national football team that won the 2014 World Cup. As a company, we were the clear winners at the world's biggest sporting event. This achievement is also reflected in the figures.
With sales of EUR 2.1 billion, our football business exceeded even our own ambitious expectations. Our e-commerce business was again our fastest growing distribution channel, up more than 70%. Our company's balance sheet is very healthy indeed. Our equity ratio stands at 45.3%, and our financial leverage is very low at 3.3%. We weren't only successful in 2014 in terms of sales and financial metrics. We also excelled in many other key areas of our company. We are the most sustainable company in Europe and in our industry. In February, the latest ranking of the world's most sustainable corporations was published at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The adidas Group was listed in an outstanding third place, well ahead of all our competitors. We're a top employer.
In 2014, we were ranked as the leading employer in our home market of Germany, in our growth market of China, and in the United Kingdom. We created almost 5,000 new jobs, including approximately 250 in Germany, where we now have around 5,500 employees. Ladies and gentlemen, these are successes the media rarely report about. These are results that appear in hardly any analyst report. For me, they are of utmost importance, for they demonstrate our commitment to manage this company for the benefit of all our stakeholders, for the benefit of our employees, for the benefit of society, and of course, for the benefit of you, our shareholders. With regard to the latter, no question about it, we should have done better in the 12 months of 2014. Midway through last year, we recognized that we would not achieve our original goals for 2014.
This piece of news, in particular, led to a 38% drop in our share price last year. If you had invested EUR 10,000 into the adidas Group on January 1st, 2014, you would only have been left with EUR 6,200 at year-end. That is disappointing, not only for you, but also for all of us on the board. If you look at the share price development over a longer period of time, it's a totally different story. Disregarding dividend payments, the EUR 10,000 for which you purchased shares 10 years ago in what at the time was adidas-Salomon AG, has turned into around EUR 25,000 today. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call sustainable. It's 15% interest per year, and that is what I call a sustainable long-term positive development.
While I'm at it, the EUR 10,000 you invested at the beginning of 2015 has meanwhile grown to almost EUR 13,000. The adidas Group is not a sprinter who runs out of steam after 100 meters. The adidas Group is a marathon runner who doesn't have to be the fastest over every kilometer, but who has the strength and endurance to accelerate again after a slower stretch. With this in mind, I would like to describe our performance in 2014 as a short period of poor form. What were the reasons why we weren't able to keep up the pace as you are accustomed to? Basically, there are three main reasons why our net income was lower than originally expected, ultimately reaching our updated target of EUR 650 million after tax. Firstly, the downturn in the global golf market.
Secondly, the unstable situation in Russia and its impact on consumer behavior in this market. Thirdly, the devaluation of key currencies versus the euro. Let's now take a look together at how each of these three factors impacted the adidas Group's balance sheet. Let's start with golf. 2014 was a bad year for the golf industry. There was a decline in the number of active players, and in the most important golf market in the U.S., a cold winter delayed the start of the season. As the world's largest golf company, our TaylorMade-adidas Golf segment was particularly hard hit by these developments. We also made mistakes ourselves. Let's be honest about this. We launched too many products, thereby further intensifying the fiercely competitive retail situation. Consequently, midway through the year, we had to take some painful measures in order to stabilize our golf business.
We reduced the size of our organization, cleaned up excess inventories, and postponed the timing of key product launches by a year. This negatively impacted our sales and profit in 2014. The coming months, when the golf season begins in the key markets of North America and England, will decide what direction the golf market is going to take this year. The golf hardware business is a lot more short-term than the footwear and apparel business, and it's a lot more difficult to plan it. Now, let's move on to Russia. There's only one headline here. In Russia, we fell victim to our own success. As a group, we have an enviable position in the Russian market, with adidas being the clear market leader and Reebok a strong number three. We have built this market systematically and successfully over the past few years.
With more than 1,000 own stores, we are one of the leading retailers in Russia. This is why the political instability in Russia and Ukraine, the resulting rapid depreciation of the Russian ruble, and the deteriorating consumer sentiment hit us particularly hard. Just imagine, in 2014, we grew our business by almost 20% in local currency, we lost all of this growth in currency translation from rubles to EUR for our income statement. It was completely eaten up by the devaluation of the Russian ruble. We also took quick action in Russia by opening fewer stores than originally planned, carefully controlling inventories, and optimizing our cost base. We were able to secure profitability levels in Russia above the group's average, even in such a challenging market environment. Thanks to our prudent approach, we will remain profitable in Russia this year as well.
Let me make one point very clear today. I fully believe in the long-term potential of the Russian market. Therefore, we will continue to invest in Russia. In particular, the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup will be a great platform for the adidas brand, and our preparations for this event are already in full swing. The third and last factor, currency effects. Currency effects wiped EUR 550 million off our top line last year. In addition, less favorable hedging rates and the devaluation of major currencies such as the Russian ruble, the Argentine peso, and the Brazilian real negatively impacted our profitability. In total, these currency effects reduced our operating profit alone by roughly EUR 170 million. TaylorMade-adidas Golf's operating profit was down, as mentioned before, by EUR 200 million compared to 2013. Together, these two exceptional factors resulted in a negative impact of EUR 370 million.
In other words, the EUR 272 million decline in the adidas Group's operating profit in 2014 is significantly below the sum of both these exceptional effects. Why am I presenting you with such detailed calculations, ladies and gentlemen? You have probably guessed already. These calculations show that the core of our business was healthy and profitable also in 2014. In addition, over the past few months, we've launched numerous initiatives in order to accelerate our pace again on the next stretch of our long-distance run. We have increased our spend for marketing and sales promotion. These measures will be supported by our full product pipeline with successful models such as the adidas Boost, the ZX Flux, the Superstar, or the Reebok ZPump Fusion. We have entered into an agreement to sell our Rockport brown shoe business in order to focus more strongly on our core competence, sport.
We have realigned our entire organization to focus on the consumer, and we have made our leadership team stronger and more international. Last but not least, on October 1, 2014, we resolved to initiate a share buyback program of up to EUR 1.5 billion. This decision is based on the authorization granted to us by the annual general meeting on May 8, that's last year, 2014, to repurchase adidas AG shares. In the first tranche in the period from November 7 to December 12, 2014, we bought back 4,889,142 shares, corresponding to an amount of EUR 4,889,142 in the nominal capital. This represents a little over 2.3% of the company's nominal capital. A total price of EUR 299,999,987 was paid to buy back the shares, representing an average purchase price per share of EUR 61.36.
We continued the share buyback program with the commencement of a second tranche on March 6, 2015. Over a period of time, not to extend beyond July 3, 2015, in total, no more than 6 million shares are to be repurchased for up to EUR 300 million. No more than 6 million shares, though. By the end of April, we had already bought back 2,173,303 shares. This represents around 1% of the company's nominal capital. To buy back shares in the second tranche, we have so far spent EUR 158,676,293, representing an average purchase price per share of EUR 73.01. That's because of the increase in share price. Ladies and gentlemen, this share buyback program shows you how firmly we, the management team, believe in the long-term financial strength of the adidas Group.
Our healthy financial structure enables us to maintain the dividend for 2014 at a stable level compared to the prior year. For 2014, we're again proposing to this AGM a dividend of EUR 1.50 per share. This means that the payout ratio increases to 54%. Our proposal concerning the appropriation of retained earnings means that of the adidas AG retained earnings, which amounted to EUR 307,117,680.14, a total of EUR 303,230,611.50 will be paid out in dividends to our shareholders, and the remaining amount will be carried forward to the new financial year. The proposal concerning the appropriation of retained earnings was adjusted due to the buyback of further shares after March 12, 2015. Notification of potential adjustments was given in the invitation to this AGM. Ladies and gentlemen, let me summarize the 2014 financial year.
We did not reach the financial targets we had set ourselves. Consequently, over the 12-month period, we diminished the assets that you had invested in the adidas Group. We cannot and do not want to be satisfied with this performance. However, our underlying business development remained positive, and we reached the goals revised in the summer of last year, despite the significant headwinds we once more faced from currencies, in particular, the Russian ruble, especially in the last few months of the year. Ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you of one thing, it never feels good if you don't reach all of your goals, neither in sports or in business or in your personal life. The important thing is to never give up, to grow with your challenges and thus to constantly improve. That, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what we did.
We reacted to our poor performance in 2014 like true athletes. We analyzed our strengths and weaknesses, adjusted our training, and worked even harder. In doing all this, in 2014, we laid the foundations for stepping up our pace again. Now, what was the most important lesson we learned from the past few months? Our most important lesson, ladies and gentlemen, was as follows: We have to focus on what really counts. The one and only thing that really counts is the consumer. The consumer must be at the heart of everything we do and the way we do it. We need to put our money where we can make a real difference for the consumer. Specifically, this means we need to build an internal organization that is completely centered around the consumer.
We have already delivered on this and have given the people in charge of our brands a lot more global responsibility. We don't need to win everywhere all over the world. We need to win where we can create the greatest halo effects for our brands. We need to set clear priorities. We know that we're always particularly successful whenever we fully focus on our group's entire strength. Our great success at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil is an excellent example. Let us now briefly indulge once again in memories of a fantastic World Cup. I'm sure Bayern Munich would have loved to get this round of applause last night. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, these learnings are the starting point for our new long-term strategic plan, which we presented to our employees, the media, and the financial community at the end of March.
Please allow me to spend a few minutes on introducing you to the key cornerstones of our strategy from which you, as shareholders, will profit sustainably. Catering to consumer demands in the best way possible is a huge challenge. The key lies in identifying trends that influence our industry before anybody else does. This is becoming increasingly difficult in a world that is turning ever faster. Only what's truly new is relevant to the consumer. Therefore, we have to relentlessly surprise our consumers. We have to offer them a constant stream of new and exciting experiences and products. In order to be able to do so, we also have to constantly reinvent ourselves as an organization. We see the following trends for the future. First, digitization. Everything that can be digitized is being digitized.
I'm not only talking about our consumers using Facebook, Twitter, and Google almost every single minute of their life. There is an array of digital technologies that can help create value for a company. Second trend, urbanization. The number of mega cities with more than 10 million inhabitants has tripled in the last 25 years. Today, more than ever, the appeal and power of a brand is determined in big cities. These are the halo locations where the perception of brands is shaped. Third trend, individual experiences. Consumers just love brands, but their relation to brands is increasingly based on their individual experiences with a brand, a campaign, or a product. What do these three trends mean for the adidas Group strategy? Quite simple. They form the starting point for our new strategy, Creating the New. Creating the New is the headline for our new five-year strategic plan.
At the same time, Creating the New is the attitude that will shape a successful future for the adidas Group. In this process, two things will remain constant: our deep roots in sport and the focus on our brands. Our brands, after all, are what connects us with consumers. Therefore, the success of our brands defines the success of our business. Here, we have a clear competitive advantage. With our portfolio of brands, we address more consumers than any of our competitors. Adidas appeals to the athlete, Reebok focuses on the fitness enthusiast, and TaylorMade-adidas Golf is all about the golfer. Creating the New is an ambitious and yet realistic plan that lays the foundation for the adidas Group's accelerated growth between now and 2020, both on the top and on the bottom line. Yes, this plan will last beyond my tenure at the helm of this group.
I will do everything in my power to get this plan off to a great start. Having said that, there's one important thing I'd like to emphasize at this point. Our new strategy was developed under the full ownership of the entire Adidas AG executive board with the involvement of many members of our senior management team. Creating the New is not my plan, not my strategy. No, Creating the New is the strategic business plan of the entire adidas Group. It was a true team effort, and now we're implementing it as a team. How exactly will we do to bring this strategy this life? As a group, we have taken three strategic choices that all our activities will focus on: speed, cities, Open Source. Let me briefly go into more detail on these three choices. Speed.
The ability to act with speed will be a key competitive advantage for us. The adidas Group will become the first true fast sports company. With adidas NEO, we have already set new standards with regard to speed to market. Thanks to the underlying business model for adidas NEO, we've been able to significantly reduce production lead times. In addition, we are managing to increase in-season creation. Building on these successes, we'll now roll out the mantra of speed across the entire group. At the same time, we intend to increase our revenues from controlled space initiatives to above 60% of total sales. This will allow us to present our products to the consumer in a high-value brand environment. We're also merging our distribution channels. No matter where consumers see or buy our products, we want our brand messaging to be consistent and above all, inspiring.
In particular, we will expand our re-commerce activities. By 2020, we plan to grow our online business fourfold to EUR 2 billion. Next, cities. In our industry, the share of global GDP accounted for by big cities is 80%, and this is where global trends are shaped. Therefore, the adidas Group intends to continue its growth in all relevant geographic markets with a specific focus on six global key cities: Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Tokyo. We'll focus our investments in personnel, marketing, and sales on these cities. We're convinced that if we win with running shoes in New York and Los Angeles, we will win throughout the United States as a whole. Next, Open Source. We'll be the first company in the sporting goods industry to embrace this term, which originates from the IT sector.
Open Source is our commitment to even stronger ties with our consumers, athletes, retailers, and partners, who will be increasingly involved in how we create, design, and present products. Already, we are working with some of the world's most creative and innovative influencers and organizations, such as Stella McCartney, Kanye West, BASF, and Google, to name just a few. We're going to execute these three strategic choices in a highly focused manner across our entire Group. By inviting consumers to be part of our brands, we will engage and inspire more consumers than ever before. By focusing on big cities, we will create positive effects for our key markets and categories way beyond these centers. By becoming faster, we will meet consumers' needs better and faster than our competitors. Taking these three things together, we will create unparalleled brand desirability.
I'm sure you still remember what I mentioned a few minutes ago. The success of our Group is built on the success of our brands. Therefore, our new strategy, Creating the New, will allow us to accelerate our top-line growth between now and 2020, win significant market share across key markets and categories, and it will enable us to improve our profitability sustainably. That, shareholders, is news that I'm sure you love to hear. There's a round of applause. Specifically, we expect to generate high single-digit sales growth on average each year over the next five years. At today's currency exchange rates, we will then achieve sales of more than EUR 22 billion in 2020. In the same period, our brands will outperform the sporting goods industry as a whole and thereby increase their market share.
Our Group will thus be in a position to achieve operating leverage and attractive margin expansion. We forecast our bottom line to grow at a significantly faster rate than our top line, with net income expected to increase around 15% each year on average by 2020 compared to the results for 2015. That's not all the good news. The Group's cash flow will grow at a faster rate compared to our operating profit in each of the next five years. As a result of our Group's healthy financial position and the positive outlook for the future, we've decided to increase the corridor for future dividend payments. Going forward, we intend to pay between 30% and 50% of net income attributable to shareholders. Previously, this range was between 20% and 40%.
In addition, we will continue the shareholder return program we've already initiated with a volume of up to EUR 1.5 billion. As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, long-term investments in the adidas Group continue to pay off. Our new strategy is based on speed, focus, and openness. As a result, we will accelerate our growth and deliver high returns to you, our shareholders. I'm already looking forward to implementing our Creating the New strategy and to creating the new together with our more than 53,000 employees across the globe. Our employees are our most valuable asset. It is they who will create the new adidas Group each day with a dedication and a passion for our brands and our products. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank all adidas AG employees most sincerely for their outstanding work. Another round of applause.
I hope you, our shareholders, agree with me so far that the adidas Group is well-positioned to step up the pace in the coming years. We have taken our learnings from 2014 and developed an exciting and promising strategy for the period up until 2020. That brings me to the last point in my report to you today, you won't have to wait until 2016 to see the first positive results of the work we've done over the last few months. The results of the first quarter of 2015, in fact, show that our core brands, adidas and Reebok, have strong momentum. Yes, if you want, you can clap your hands. As you can see from our first quarter results, which we published two days ago, adidas revenues increased 11% and sales at Reebok were up 9% on a currency neutral basis.
Currency neutral group sales also grew 9%. In EUR terms, the development is even more positive because of the significant appreciation of major currencies such as the U.S. dollar or the Chinese renminbi versus the EUR. In EUR, group sales increased 17% to EUR 4.1 billion. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a new record level for the adidas Group for a first quarter. We grew in almost all markets, including North America, where currency neutral revenues rose 7% due to the strong growth at brand adidas, which grew 9%. Russia was the only market with a slight sales decline. We again performed particularly well in Greater China and Western Europe. Here, sales increased at double-digit rates, and we grew our bottom line faster than our top line, with net income up 22% to EUR 255 million after tax. Ladies and gentlemen, this marks a strong start into 2015.
Based on this, I can today confirm our guidance for the full year. In 2015, we will increase our sales at a mid-single digit rate on a currency neutral basis. The group's bottom line will continue to grow faster than the top line, with net income expected to increase at the rate of 7%-10% compared to 2014. It isn't only in terms of the top and bottom lines that we got off to a successful start in 2015. Our financial results reflect numerous activities with which we have enthralled our consumers. Here are a few examples. In February, we launched a global series of films for the adidas brand called Sport 15. Sport 15 will tell stories throughout the year showing that adidas understands athletes better than any other brand. We're also performing well in the lifestyle sector.
The adidas Superstar quickly became the shoe of the season. When we launched the Yeezy, our first shoe development collaboration with Kanye West, long queues formed in front of stores. Reebok kicked off the year with a new brand campaign, the campaign titled "Be More Human." It's a rally cry to everyone to take better shape of their body. With this, Reebok resonates extremely well with its target group, the fitness generation. In addition, in March, Reebok introduced the ZPump Fusion, featuring its successful pump technology in innovative footwear models. As you all know, ladies and gentlemen, pictures say more than 1,000 words. Let's look back together on some of this year's successes. Well, look.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that with my report, I've been able to give you the good feeling that the adidas Group is tackling the next kilometers of its long-distance run in a fit and healthy state. Just to remind you of the most important messages. We have a clear company core, sport. Sport has never before been so attractive, and we firmly believe that sport can make a positive change in everybody's life. With our portfolio of brands comprising adidas, Reebok, and TaylorMade adidas Golf, we address more consumers and athletes than any of our competitors. We didn't achieve all the goals that we had set ourselves in 2014. We are and will remain a growth company, and we have drawn valuable learnings for the future from both the disappointments and the successes of the year.
We have developed a long-term strategic plan with clear priorities, which we are now implementing in a focused manner. Our new strategy, Creating the New, will enable us to accelerate the adidas Group's growth until 2020 and create sustainable value. We got off to a good start in 2015, and we're optimistic about our prospects for the future. Therefore, I very much hope that you, our shareholders, will continue to place your trust in us. Thank you very much for your attention and for your trust. Thank you.