Bjørn Gulden, Chief Executive Officer of Puma SE commented: “The first quarter of 2019 was the best quarter Puma has ever seen. Revenue of 1 319 million euros (+15.3% currency adjusted) is the highest Puma has ever achieved in a quarter and the EBIT of 143 million euros was also the highest absolute EBIT Puma has ever achieved. So, it has been a very good start into the year. The growth in all regions and all product divisions shows that we continue to make progress. Even if we have nine more months to go and despite a lot of uncertainty in the market, we feel comfortable that we will achieve our guidance for the full year.”

Puma's sales growth continued in the first quarter of 2019. Sales rose by 15.3% currency-adjusted to 1 319.3 million euros (+16.6% reported) compared to 1 131.1 million euros last year. The regions Asia/Pacific, driven by China, and the Americas contributed with double-digit sales growth, while sales in EMEA increased solidly.

In terms of divisions, apparel was the main growth driver in the quarter, followed by accessories and footwear. The categories running and training, teamsport, motorsport and golf on the performance side as well as sportstyle all recorded strong growth. The double-digit increase in both wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales underlines a well-balanced growth of our business.

The gross profit margin improved by 80 basis points from 48.2% to 49.0%. The increase resulted from a favorable product mix with higher growth in apparel and a favorable regional sales mix with higher sales growth in the Asia/Pacific region. Currency effects also had a slight positive impact on the gross profit margin development in the first quarter.

Net earnings went up by 40.1% from 67.4 million euros last year to 94.4 million euros in the first quarter of 2019, supported by an improved financial result. As a consequence, earnings per share improved from 4.51 euros to 6.31 euros.

Outlook 2019

After a strong start into 2019 both in terms of sales and profitability, Puma confirmed the guidance for the full-year 2019, which was provided earlier in February 2019. Main highlights include:

- Sales: currency-adjusted growth of around 10%;
- Gross profit margin: slight improvement compared to last year (2018: 48.4%);

- EBIT: in a range between 395 million euros and 415 million euros;

- Net earnings: significant improvement.