30
Oct
2009
COTTON FROM AFRICA
all three major sports goods makers have responded to the crisis by cutting costs. puma aims to save up to 150 million euros from 2011 by closing stores, cutting some products and renegotiating contracts with athletes.
“everything is going according to plan,” zeitz said. “we have consistently implemented measures, reacting to the sensitive market environment,” he added.
puma outperformed larger rival adidas in the first half of the year with a positive sales trend, but said it saw only slight signs of improvement in the market, whereas adidas said it had now turned the corner.
zeitz has said analysts’ estimates for a 2009 sales decline of about 2 percent at puma would be a good guess.
puma’s 2008 sales rose 6.3 percent to 2.5 billion euros.
“it is too early to give the all-clear for the various markets. i don’t see a big difference between the regions. the situation in the united states is still difficult,” zeitz said.
puma still has sales potential of 4 billion euros, he said, but only in the long term due to the economic crisis.
puma has no plans for acquisitions, and planned to “focus on our own brand,” he said.
higher sourcing costs have burdened margins at all three heavyweights, but puma still managed to beat its rivals with a gross margin of 51.1 percent in the first half. zeitz said he hoped to see relief in raw materials prices from 2010 at the latest.
puma has moved some of its sourcing from asia to africa — it signed up to the “cotton made in africa” project for sustainable cotton production — but zeitz said it was unrealistic to source or produce everything in africa.