Dive Brief:
- Puma’s sales rose 14.4% in fiscal 2023’s first quarter to about $2.4 billion (2.2 billion euros), though revenue dipped in North America due to high inventory levels among the company’s wholesale partners.
- Growth in other areas helped offset those losses. Sales to the Asia/Pacific region increased 27.4% year over year to around $526 million, which was driven by the Greater China region. This marked the first time Puma saw growth in the region in more than two years, according to its news release.
- Arne Freundt, CEO of Puma, said the company was considering 2023 to “be a year of transition.” The strong first quarter earnings comes on the heels of major recent developments at Puma, including the decision to introduce a kangaroo leather-free version of its soccer cleats and to renew a collaboration with Rihanna.
Dive Insight:
Puma saw growth across all of its channels. The company’s wholesale revenue increased 12.4% from the year before to around $1.9 billion, while sales in Puma’s retail stores rose 22.5% to roughly $514.5 million. Direct-to-consumer sales saw particularly strong growth, leading DTC to account for 21.3% of the company’s first quarter sales.
“Our Q1 growth was a strong start to 2023,” Freundt said in a statement. “In line with our strategy to be the best partner to retailers, we grew our wholesale business in a challenging environment and further strengthened our performance credibility with strong growth in our strategically important performance categories.”
The company stayed tight-lipped about Puma’s reprised partnership with Rihanna, which it announced in March with a two-word announcement: “She’s back.” In the company’s press release Wednesday sharing its first quarter earnings, Puma said the multi-year collaboration will focus on unisex and kids collections.
Puma also drew attention to its recent initiative to create kangaroo leather-free versions of its King soccer cleat. A proprietary leather alternative called K-Better will be used instead. About a week after Puma’s announcement, Nike followed suit and announced it was discontinuing the use of kangaroo leather.
