Net income falls for Puma in first half despite sales growth
Sales in the second quarter totalled €2.12 billion, up by 5.9% on a reported basis. The EMEA region saw currency-adjusted growth of 25% to €846 million, while the Asia/Pacific was up by 24.4% to €413.3 million.
Sales in the Americas were down by 4.4% to €861.5 million, driven by North America, while Latin America showed strong growth. Puma noted that North American declines were due to macroeconomic headwinds and its relative dependency on the off-price wholesale business, which will be strategically contained going forward.
The wholesale business was up by 6.9% on a currency adjusted basis in the second quarter to €1.61 billion, while direct-to-consumer (DTC) had growth of 26.5% to €515.4 million. Sales in owned and operated retail stores were up by 30.4% and e-commerce was up by 19.1%.
Sales in footwear were up by 18.2%, driven by the football, basketball and performance running categories, while apparel had growth of 4.2% and accessories were up by 3.3%. The gross profit margin for the period was down by 170 basis points to 44.8% while net income fell by 34.7% to €55 million.
In the first half of the year, sales were up by 10.1% on a reported basis to €4.31 million, with growth in the Asia/Pacific region of 26% on a currency adjusted basis, following by the EMEA region with 25.2%.
The Americas had a currency adjusted sales decline of 2.7% due to macroeconomic headwinds, high inventory levels in the trade and Puma’s relative dependency on the off-price wholesale business in the U.S..
Wholesale was up by 9.6% (currency adjusted) to €3.33 billion while DTC had growth of 24.6% to €9809 million, sales in owned and operated retail stores were up by 24% and e-commerce was up by 25.6%.
Footwear led growth, up by 23.5%, while apparel and accessories were up by 2.9% and 0.8% respectively. Gross profit margin for the half was down by 120 basis points to 45.7%, while net income was down by 16.2% to €172.3 million.
Looking forward, Puma expects currency-adjusted sales growth in the high single-digit percentage range for the 2023 financial year.
Puma SE CEO Arne Freundt said: “On the back of our Q2 results, we are perfectly on track to achieve our full-year outlook in the transition year 2023. Puma continued to grow by double-digits, demonstrating continued strong brand momentum, despite the volatile environment.
“As the best partner for wholesale, we worked together with our retailers through elevated inventory levels in the market and successfully normalized our own inventory levels as planned.”