A strong third and then a good fourth quarter: This is the balance sheet that Puma boss Björn Gulden drew on Wednesday. Under the given circumstances, said Gulden, a difficult year could be concluded on a positive note. The result underlines the strength of Puma and the entire sporting goods industry, “which makes me look to the future with confidence,” writes the “Chief Executive Officer” of the big cat in his review of the 2020 financial year. And further: “We see that people are up around the world want to do more exercise as soon as conditions allow, and they continued to buy new sneakers and sportswear even during the pandemic. ”
Nevertheless: 2020 was definitely the most difficult year “I have ever experienced,” says Gulden. “The Covid 19 pandemic has confronted us with an unprecedented situation.” Nevertheless, the sporting goods company from Herzogenaurach is assuming that it got through this crisis “as well as possible”. The problems have been overcome without compromising medium-term growth potential.
2021 will be better
The pandemic is still present and has a negative impact on business. Puma assumes that these negative effects will continue in the first and partly second quarter, said the boss. He expects an improvement in the second half of the year. “I am convinced that 2021 will be a better year for us than 2020,” says Gulden.
Despite Corona, Puma made a few good catches last year. The signing of a long-term contract with soccer star Neymar, one of the most successful players of his generation, is described as a significant highlight. With 64 goals in 103 games for Brazil, Neymar is the second best goalscorer in the history of the Brazilian national team. Who is ahead? Pelé – also a puma legend. Neymar was also won as a brand ambassador, which shows Puma’s continued focus on football. In addition, the list of world-class teams has been expanded and the national associations of Iceland and Paraguay have also been signed. Another brand ambassador is Lewis Hamilton, who became Formula 1 world champion for the seventh time in 2020.
And a Puma athlete also set standards in athletics last year. Armand “Mondo” Duplantis went down in history by setting a new world record in the pole vault. In February he jumped 6.18 meters in an indoor tournament and in September he broke the 26-year-old outdoor record by jumping 6.15 meters. In order to expand its market position in athletics, Puma contracted the Australian and South African federations as well as two Jamaican athletes: long jump world champions Tajay Gayle and Omar McLeod, Olympic champions and 2017 world champions over 110 meter hurdles.
Great challenge mastered
In summary, the corona pandemic presented the company with major challenges in 2020. Efforts were made to “manage the crisis in the short term without jeopardizing our medium-term growth.” The group result fell to 78.9 million euros for the year as a whole compared to 262.4 million euros in the previous year. A pre-tax profit of 162.3 million euros was achieved (previous year: 417.6 million). Due to the positive annual result, the Management Board and the Supervisory Board intend to propose to the Annual General Meeting on May 5 that a dividend of EUR 0.16 per share be paid out for the full year 2020. See also report in economics on
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