Following today’s release of Puma’s figures for the 52 weeks ending 31 December 2024; Pippa Stephens, senior apparel analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view: “Puma experienced a significant rebound in Q4 FY2024, with reported revenue rising 15.5% to almost €2.3bn and currency-adjusted sales increasing 9.8%. This compares to a decline of 0.1% in Q3, however, the strong uplift was primarily driven by extremely weak comparatives in the prior year when it fell 9.8%. Its revenue for the full year grew by 2.5% to just over €8.8bn, with currency-adjusted sales rising 4.4%, while its operating profit only increased 0.1% to €622.0m, driving it to implement its Nextlevel efficiency programme to reduce costs. The brand remains cautious with its outlook for FY2025, only expecting low- to mid-single digit currency adjusted percentage growth, with Q1 forecast to be down by a low-single digit percentage, due to economic challenges in the US and China.
“Though it dipped to become the weakest region in Q4 with currency-adjusted growth of 6.5%, as complexities in its warehouse operations in Latin America impacted stock levels, the Americas was the fastest growing region in FY2024, rising 7.0%, though it did face the weakest comparatives from the prior year. Asia Pacific grew 9.5% in Q4 and 3.8% for the full year, hindered by ongoing struggles in China, where consumers are struggling financially due to the real estate crisis, as well as Puma seeing greater competition from local players like Li-Ning and Anta. EMEA had a challenging year, growing just 2.1% overall, due to the region being hardest hit by inflation. However, it did witness the highest increase in Q4 of 14.6%, partly due to weak comparatives but also likely due to improved consumer sentiment.
“Puma’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel continued to significantly outperform, rising by 13.7% in FY2024, compared to a decline of 1.2% for its wholesale operations. The brand is placing considerable investment into the channel through store and website enhancements, which allows it to curate its brand image more effectively. Footwear was its strongest category, growing by 3.3%, boosted by its Sportstyle Core and Kids ranges, as well as its running and teamsport collections, having increased visibility of its running footwear during the Paris Olympics, and released new editions of its Future and Ultra football boots. Apparel increased 1.8%, while accessories grew 1.1%, with both supported by its collaborations with high-profile celebrities such as K-Pop artist Rosé and A$AP Rocky.”
