30
Oct
2009
Puma to use World Cup to boost African revenues
jochen zeitz, chief executive of sports goods maker puma, said the brand is looking to significantly step up sales, production and sourcing in africa in the coming years, using the football world cup in south africa as a central focal point.
according to uk industry newspaper the financial times, over the past year the african continent accounted for about 3 per cent of puma’s 2.5 billion revenues however sales of footballs, shoes and apparel have doubled every two years.
zeitz said that puma’s revenues in africa, considering its 1 billion inhabitants, would continue to grow faster than elsewhere in the world and that it aims to step up production in africa to more than one million pieces in 2010, after 750,000 pieces this year.
puma is the world’s third-largest sports goods producer and is looking to make up ground on rivals adidas and nike on a global scale.
puma sponsors 11 african teams and the continent’s star player in europe, cameroon’s samuel eto’o. it is also a supporter of the “cotton made in africa” initiative which aims to improve the living conditions of african cotton farmers and the brand wants to increase the amount of cotton sourced in africa from 3 per cent currently to a high two-digit percentage in the coming years.
the sporting goods industry is eagerly awaiting next year’s south africa football world cup, as this 2009 lacked a large revenue-boosting sporting event.