30
Oct
2009
Puma CEO expects 2010 record football sales
the world’s no. 3 sports good company behind nike and adidas
said a recovery in the global economy was needed more than anything to improve the group’s performance.
“an improvement of the world economy would be a reason for a better 2010. soccer plays of course an important part, but soccer alone won’t be enough,” chief executive jochen zeitz told reuters in an interview published on friday.
puma shares trimmed grains after the comments but were still up 5.4 percent at 196.78 euros by 1:05 p.m., easily outperforming a 1.1 percent gain in germany’s mid-cap index.
zeitz was speaking in berlin ahead of saturday’s start to the world athletics championships. puma-sponsored jamaican usain bolt, who set world records for the 100 and 200 metre sprints at the beijing olympics last year, will be competing.
running is an important business for the company, zeitz said, without disclosing figures. “we want to grow here, and we want to make running cooler.”
sales of soccer-related products account for a double-digit percentage of puma’s overall annual sales. the global market in this category is dominated by cross-town rival adidas, with a market share of 34 percent, followed by nike.
adidas said in june it was well positioned to extend its soccer goods market leadership next year, aiming for sales of clearly more than 1.3 billion euros (1.1 billion pounds).
adidas equips the national teams of germany, argentina and spain among others, while puma, majority-owned by france’s ppr, kits out teams including italy, the czech republic and cameroon.