Puma Warns of Another Difficult Year for Sneaker Sales in 2025

Yahoo

12-03-2025

(Bloomberg) — Puma SE disappointed investors for the second time in seven weeks with softer-than-expected results, as the German sneaker and sportswear company struggles to build momentum with consumers.
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The company forecast another slow year of growth in 2025, citing global trade tariffs, currency volatility and geopolitical tensions. Adjusted earnings will probably come in a range between €520 million ($567 million) and €600 million before interest and taxes, it said in a statement late Tuesday, below the €674 million average estimate of analysts.
Currency-adjusted sales will probably grow in the low- to mid-single-digit range, the company said, also trailing expectations.
The shares tumbled on Tradegate before the opening of regular trading in Frankfurt. The stock has declined 32% over the past year, lagging behind both crosstown rival Adidas AG and industry leader Nike Inc.
The forecast raises questions about whether Puma can build momentum with its brand and with key shoe models that it's hoping will take off with consumers this year, such as the thin-soled, 1990s-era Speedcat sneaker, Piral Dadhania, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note.
It also raises doubts about whether Puma will be able to achieve its target of reaching an 8.5% Ebit margin by 2027 — a target that Puma had already pushed back by two years when it released preliminary fourth-quarter figures back in January, said Cedric Lecasble, an analyst at Stifel, in a note.
'This new release strongly challenges the pillars of our investment case,' Lecasble said.
Speedcat
Puma's sales growth has slowed since Chief Executive Officer Arne Freundt took over at the end of 2022. He has said Puma needs to prioritize the buildout of more premium sneaker models — such as the Speedcat — that can command higher prices.
Investors are closely watching how the Speedcat performs this year, because it's the first model that Freundt has sought to carefully incubate and then scale up for the masses.
In the first quarter, the company has struggled with weak demand in both the US and China, it said in the statement. Earnings in the quarter will probably come in 'significantly below' last year's results, it said.
'Puma's weak 1Q and 2025 trails consensus and suggests spending and cost uncertainty due to economic and trade tensions in the US and China,' Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Poonam Goyal and Sydney Goodman wrote in a research note.
The company also anticipates one-time costs of as much as €75 million this year as part of efficiency efforts. The cost cuts are expected to add as much as €100 million to earnings this year, excluding interest and taxes. For the full year, and including the one-time costs, Puma expects that measure of earnings to be in the range of €445 million to €525 million — well below the previous year's result.
Related: Puma Plunges After Profit Warning Highlights Adidas's Lead
Last month, Freundt promised to give more conservative forecasts after surprising investors with bad news. The latest example came in January, when Puma reported preliminary fourth-quarter figures that disappointed investors just weeks after Freundt had assured them the company was performing well.
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