Puma Q1 profits fall, sales flat & guidance held, but no forecast on tariff hit.
Puma reported a fall in first-quarter profits and flat sales as it declined to provide any estimates on the potential hit from US tariffs.
Key developments Q1 2025
- Currency-adjusted sales up by 0.1 percent to €2,076 million (-1.3% reported)
- Gross profit margin decreases by 60 basis points to 47.0 percent
- Operating expenses (OPEX) increase by 7.1 percent to €905 million
- Adjusted Ebit excluding one-time costs decreases by 52.4 percent to €76 million
- Ebit at €58 million, including one-time expenses of €18 million from the next-level cost efficiency program
- Next-level update: A reduction of about 500 staff positions is expected to be completed by the end of Q2. Efficiency initiatives started for unprofitable owned and operated retail stores, indirect procurement, sourcing and IT
- Puma appoints Arthur Hoeld as CEO (effective July 1) and Matthias Bäumer as Chief Commercial Officer (effective April 1)
Operating profit fell 52 percent year-on-year to €76 million, less than the 58 percent decrease expected by analysts. Net profit dropped to €0.5 million from €87.3 million previously. Sales came in at €2.076 billion, a rise of 0.1 percent year on year on an adjusted currency basis and beating forecasts of €2.04 billion.
| Puma - Income | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 (€ million) | |||
| 2025 | 2024 | Change | |
| Sales | 2,076.0 | 2,102.3 | -1.3% |
| Cost of sales | 1,100.9 | 1,103.3 | -0.2% |
| Gross profit | 975.1 | 999.0 | -2.4% |
| Royalty & commission income | 5.5 | 5.2 | 5.8% |
| Other operating income and expenses | 904.9 | 845.3 | 7.1% |
| Adjusted Ebit | 75.7 | 159.0 | -52.4% |
| One-time costs | 18.0 | 0.0 | – |
| Operating result (Ebit) | 57.7 | 159.0 | -63.7% |
| Financial result | -42.0 | -26.8 | -56.7% |
| Pre-tax | 15.7 | 132.2 | -88.1% |
| Tax | 4.2 | 33.0 | -87.3% |
| Net income | 0.5 | 87.3 | -99.4% |
| Diluted EPS | 0.00 | 0.58 | -100.0% |
| Source: Puma | |||
Gross profit margin fell 0.6 percentage points to 47 percent, while Ebit margin declined 4.8 points to 2.8 percent.
The company, which has a large manufacturing base in Asia, did say it had moved to cut US imports from China after warning in March that it expected to be hit by President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and said it would remain “agile and ready to manage the increased market volatility and swiftly respond to changing external conditions”.
| Puma - Sales | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 (€ million) | ||||
| 2025 | 2024 | Change | ||
| Regions | ||||
| EMEA | 891.7 | 855.7 | 4.2% | |
| Americas | 753.7 | 790.0 | -4.6% | |
| Asia-Pacific | 430.5 | 456.6 | -5.7% | |
| Divisions | ||||
| Footwear | 1,186.0 | 1,181.5 | 0.4% | |
| Apparel | 594.3 | 608.1 | -2.3% | |
| Accessories | 295.7 | 312.7 | -5.4% | |
| Channels | ||||
| Wholesale | 1,529.5 | 1,608.1 | -4.9% | |
| DTC | 546.5 | 494.2 | 10.6% | |
| Source: Puma | ||||
“Due to the highly uncertain implications from the US tariffs, we are not quantifying the potential implications at this stage,” said chief financial officer Markus Neubrand in a statement. Rival Adidas has already warned that the levies would lead to price hikes for all of its US products.
Outlook FY 2025
- Currency-adjusted sales growth at a low-to-mid single-digit percentage rate
- Adjusted Ebit excluding one-time costs in a range between €520 million and €600 million
- CAPEX of around €300 million
- Maintained outlook excludes potential implications from US tariffs announced after Puma’s initial outlook on March 11
Puma continued to forecast 2025 sales growth in the low- to mid-single-digit percentage range, and adjusted operating profit excluding one-time costs of €520-600 million. The company also maintained its 2025 earnings targets, but acknowledged that its outlook ignored the potential impacts of Trump’s erratic approach to tariffs.
Geographically, weak US sales contributed to a 2.7 percent sales decline in the Americas, while Asia-Pacific, notably China, fell 4.7 percent. EMEA produced the only bright spot with a rise of 5.1 percent.
Footwear sales were up 2.4 percent, while apparel and accessories were down 1.5 and 5.7 percent, respectively.
Wholesale business decreased by 3.6 percent, mainly driven by softer sales in the US and China. DTC was up 12 percent, led by e-commerce, which grew 17.3 percent, while sales in owned & operated retail stores increased 8.9 percent.
Puma, which parted company with chief executive Arne Freundt in April after a disagreement with the supervisory board over its sales strategy, is now waiting for the arrival of Adidas veteran Arthur Hoeld as CEO in July.
In an update on its “next-level” turnaround plan to increase brand competitiveness, lower product complexity, improve sourcing efficiencies and cut costs, Puma said it expected to cut 500 jobs by the end of Q2 and had begun “efficiency initiatives” for unprofitable owned and operated retail stores, indirect procurement, sourcing and IT. The program is expected to cost €75 million this year, but is forecast to generate an additional €100 million in Ebit.
