After a recently disappointing development, the sporting goods manufacturer Puma has a boss change. Arne Freundt “returns as a CEO on April 11 because of different opinions about the implementation of the strategy”, the company announced on Thursday in Herzogenaurach. The supervisory board determined Arthur Hoeld as the new Puma boss from July 1st. Until October 2024, this was responsible for Adidas for the global sales.
Matthias Bäumer, previously Vice President for the Teamsport segment, also takes over the position of the sales board as of April 1. With the personnel cupboard, Puma reacts to the decline in profits last year. The German Group is also based on falling results for this year. Commercial tensions, careful consumers and strong fluctuations in the exchange rates burden the Franks, which massively lag behind their local rival.
US tariffs burden sporting goods manufacturers
Sneakers and hoodies are likely to become significantly more expensive in the USA due to the high tariffs against Asian countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. The world’s largest sporting goods companies Nike, Adidas and Puma have more than 90 percent of their shoes and sports clothes manufacture and can hardly dodge at short notice. There is no significant production in the United States or in Europe.
- Read here: Strong losses on the US exchanges
The US tariffs could push the margins through more than 10 percentage points throughout the industry, said Metzler analyst Felix Dennl on Thursday, one day after US President Donald Trump announced. Consumers in the United States should also spend less for textiles. “The sporting goods manufacturers will probably react with price increases in the USA,” said Dennl. That should in turn dampen the demand. According to calculations by UBS analysts, prices would have to be increased by 10 to 12 percent because of the tariffs against Vietnam.
“}”>
Image: Daniel Roland (AFP)
Source: Nachrichten
