DOW leaps at Olympic sponsorship (USA)

US chemical giant Dow Chemical said it will seize the opportunity of sponsoring the Olympic Games and participating in Olympic-related projects.

Peter Sykes, president of the company in Greater China, said on May 22 the company is gaining access to substantial Olympic-related contracts as a preferred partner, and aims to generate more than $1 billion in additional sales through 2020.

Meanwhile, sponsoring the Olympic Games will help the company gain chances to cooperate with the Chinese government in the fitness and sports industries.

China will increase the number of sports venues from 1 million to 1.2 million by the end of 2015, the company estimated.

In 2011, Dow had annual sales of $60 billion and achieved sales of $10.5 billion in the Asia-Pacific market.

According to Sykes, up to 43 percent of the sales in the Asia-Pacific were from the Chinese market, the second-largest international market for the company last year.