Puma reports "best year in history" in FY21 and Q4 results

Puma has released its financial results for Q4 and FY21, revealing a 32% sales increase to £5.6 billion (€6.8 billion) in 2021.

In Q4, Puma's sales increased by 14% currency adjusted to £1.4 billion (€1.7 billion), compared to £1.2 billion (€1.5 billion) in 2020. EMEA reported sales growth of 14.9%.

All product divisions grew in the fourth quarter, with footwear up 15.6%, apparel 11.7% and accessories 17.4%. Puma credits this growth to a strong demand for its performance categories including Running & Training, Teamsports, Golf and Basketball.

Wholesale business increased by 16.5% to £1 billion (€1.2 billion) and the direct-to-consumer business by 9.7% to £466 million (€559 million). In 2021, wholesale increased 35% to £4.1 billion (€5 billion), while the DTC sales increased by 22.8% to £1.4 billion (€1.7 billion).

Q4 sales in Puma's retail stores increased by 21.5%. Ecommerce declined by 6.8%, but rose by 11.3% for the full year.

Gross profit increased by 48.2% in Q4 and 47.9% in 2021.

Net earnings decreased to £6.6 million (€8 million) in Q4, against £20 million (€25 million) in 2020, due to a lower financial result and a negative impact attributable to non-controlling interests. For 2021, Puma's net earnings improved to £258 million (€310 million), compared to £65 million (€79 million) in FY20.

The company expects a strong currency-adjusted sales growth of at least 10% in FY22.

Bjørn Gulden, CEO at Puma, said: “2021 was a very successful year for us. Despite all the issues and obstacles related to COVID- 19 and political tensions around the world, we had the best year in PUMA’s history. Our continued brand momentum combined with high operational flexibility are the main reasons for these achievements.

"At the start of 2022 COVID-19 is unfortunately still negatively affecting our supply chain, inflationary pressures are having a negative impact on our costs and operating margins and the geo-political situation remains very tense. We will have to continue our hard work in this difficult environment, but I remain very optimistic for the future of both our sector in general and PUMA."