Puma (sporting goods manufacturer)

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PUMA SE

logo
legal form Societas Europaea
ISIN DE0006969603
founding June 1, 1948
Seat Herzogenaurach , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management
Number of employees 12.192
sales 4.643 billion euros (2018)
Branch Sporting goods
Website www.puma.de
As of December 31, 2018

The Puma SE (self spelling: PUMA SE ) is a listed German sporting goods supplier and manufacturer of footwear, apparel and accessories based in Herzogenaurach in Nuremberg . In addition to the brands Puma, Cobra Golf and Tretorn , the company also includes the subsidiaries Dobotex BV and Brandon Company AB . From 2007 to spring 2018, Puma SE was majority owned by the French Kering group ; since a share redistribution, the luxury goods group and the Kering founding family Pinault are major shareholders with a total of approx. 45% of the Puma shares. With an annual turnover of 4.1 billion euros, a consolidated profit of 135.8 million euros and 11,389 employees in 2017, Puma is one of the world's largest sporting goods manufacturers alongside Adidas and Nike . Puma holds a 5% stake in Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA , which the company has been supplying since 2012.

Company history

Early years

Rudolf Dassler began to produce sports shoes together with his brother Adolf in 1920 . The Dassler brothers founded the Gebrüder Dassler sports shoe factory in Herzogenaurach, Germany , in 1924 . Due to disagreements, Rudolf started building his own company after World War II, while his brother founded Adidas . Initially, the company name was Ruda (from Ru dolf Da ssler). Since Rudolf Dassler's nickname among sports friends in his youth was 'Puma' and because of the similar but better sound and the association with the dynamism of the American silver lion , the decision was finally made to use Puma as the company name. On October 1, 1948, Rudolf Dassler had the Puma Rudolf Dassler shoe factory entered in the commercial register.

With the Atom model , the first Puma soccer shoe was introduced in 1948. Rudolf Dassler began development work for the manufacture of a soccer shoe with screw studs in 1949 . The Super Atom came onto the market in 1952 with the participation of numerous football experts, including Sepp Herberger . The successor model Brasil was ready for the market in 1953. In 1957 Dassler patented the word and image trademark Puma. For the football World Cup in Sweden in 1958, all Puma shoe models were given the curved Pumas trademark on the side, the form strip.

Africa logo for the Soccer World Cup 2010

The company was converted into a limited partnership in 1959 , and has been called Puma-Sportschuhfabriken Rudolf Dassler KG ever since . Rudolf Dassler's wife and his two sons became partners.

Just like Adidas, in the following years, for marketing reasons, Puma was anxious to sign as many athletes as possible who competed in international competitions. These included Heinz Fütterer , Armin Hary , Gaston Roelants , Mary Rand , Abebe Bikila , Pelé (the King model was developed for him ), Eusébio , Tommie Smith , John Carlos , Lee Evans , Bob Seagren , John Akii-Bua , Mary Peters (athlete) , Randy Williams , Klaus Wolfermann , Walt Frazier (the Clyde model was developed for him ), Johan Cruyff , Guillermo Vilas , Diego Maradona , Evelyn Ashford , Boris Becker , Martina Navrátilová , Lothar Matthäus (his parents and brother at Puma were busy), Heike Drechsler , Dieter Baumann , Linford Christie , Merlene Ottey , Colin Jackson or Serena Williams .

The company logo, a jumping Puma, was designed on January 10, 1968 by graphic designer Lutz Backes . In the same year the company introduced the basketball shoe Suede from suede out, which is produced to this day. During the protest at the 1968 Olympic Games , Tommie Smith in socks was standing on the podium and held his suede shoe in the air in his left hand . In 1979 the jumping puma was placed above the word mark.

From the late 1960s, the company produced sportswear in addition to sports shoes. After Rudolf Dassler's death in 1974, his sons Armin and Gerd took over the management of the company. Armin held 70% and Gerd 30% of the shares. In 1986 Puma was converted from a limited partnership into a stock corporation. At the urging of Deutsche Bank, Armin Dassler had to vacate his position on the board at the end of 1987. A non-company manager, Hans Woitschätzke, was appointed head of the company.

Since the Dassler brothers split up in a dispute in the 1940s, the ongoing rivalry between Adidas and Puma at the common location in Herzogenaurach had created tension not only between the two workforces, but also among the local population, which only began around the 2000s Years of relaxation.

Crisis and turnaround

Casual shoes from Puma

When Puma got into a crisis by the beginning of the 1990s at the latest, the company management decided to realign the brand. Puma had been in the red since 1986 and was increasingly viewed by the relevant target group as an unattractive cheap brand. Early 1990 Puma was a former runner-up behind Adidas in terms of sales behind Adidas, Nike and Reebok dropped to fourth place. The company suffered from high production costs, an overly broad product range, accumulated debts and inconsistent marketing activities, among other things. In 1987 a loss of 73 million DM was made. The America business plummeted. From the 1990s Puma introduced the Trinomic cushioning system and the laceless Disc closure system . In 1991 the German market collapsed.

The Swedish investment company Proventus / Aritmos BV became the majority shareholder in 1990 after the Dassler heirs had sold their shares to the Swiss trading group Cosa Liebermann a year earlier due to serious management errors. The realignment took place under the then 30-year-old CEO Jochen Zeitz , who was appointed by Puma's main shareholder Aritmos in 1993 . The restructuring plan initially envisaged a reorganization of the company, the closure of unprofitable production facilities and a narrowing of the range, especially in the lower price segment. Production at the Herzogenaurach location was discontinued. The number of German employees fell from 719 to 367, and Zeitz dissolved numerous positions in middle management at the global corporation. Puma achieved its first positive annual result since going public in 1986. In the same year, the company achieved the highest profit in the company's history. Zeitz also set its sights on the brand image of the sporting goods manufacturer: From now on, Puma consistently focused on fashion and lifestyle products in addition to pure sporting goods. It was long overlooked that most customers bought sports shoes as fashionable casual shoes. To this end, cooperations with international designers were entered into from 1996, extensive marketing campaigns with well-known athletes such as Serena Williams were run as testimonials, and sales locations for Puma products were reduced. The Malian fashion designer Lamine Badian Kouyaté was commissioned with his fashion brand Xuly Bët to tailor Puma clothing from previous collections for haute couture and to present it effectively on the Paris catwalks. Puma entered into a cooperation with the fashion brand Jil Sander from 1996 on sneakers in the upper price segment, which were available in stores from 1998.

Puma became the official supplier of the US National Football League (NFL) in 1999 . In 2000 a long-term cooperation with the Japanese designer Yasuhiro Mihara started on high-priced sports shoes and clothing, which were offered from 2001 to the mid-2010s. The yoga collections Nuala and mahanuala were created with the model Christy Turlington . The designer Marc Jacobs designed a Nuala handbag. The Scandinavian Tretorn Group was taken over by Puma in 2001. In 2001 the Speedcat model, which had been developed since 1998, came onto the market. In 2002 Puma finally opened its own stores after having invested heavily in product innovation. The pop singer Madonna wore the lifestyle sneaker Mostro free of charge during her concert tour in 2002 and thus spurred Puma sales. The short-lived Puma Platinum collection with high-quality shoe models inspired by the world of polo (sport) , sailing or golf was offered during this time. Also in 2002, the high-priced Puma 96 Hours collection for business travelers was launched with British designer Neil Barrett , which existed until the mid-2000s, and a collaboration began with Dutch shoe designer Alexander van Slobbe. Zeitz named Barrett as creative director of Puma in 2003. The majority shareholder Monarchy / Regency, who had held around 40% of Puma since 1996, sold its stake in 2003 to a wide range of international, institutional investors. Together with the designer Philippe Starck , Puma designed a shoe collection in 2004. During this time, after massive outsourcing measures, over 80% of the production of Puma articles took place in Asia. In 2005 began a collaboration with Alexander McQueen on high-end sports shoes, which were available from 2006. The cooperation lasted until the early 2010s and was continued for a few seasons from 2014 with the second line McQ . The numerous designer collaborations, as well as the vintage Rudolf Dassler Schuhfabrik collection , were finally grouped under the term Puma Black Station from the mid-2000s , for which so-called exclusive Puma Black Stores were opened. Zeitz is credited, Puma has been saved from bankruptcy and having achieved the turnaround with great success .

At the beginning of 2009, Puma bought the Swedish merchandising company Brandon Company AB , with whom Puma had been working since it entered the world of sailing sponsorship at the Volvo Ocean Race 2008–2009 . In the same year Puma signed a cooperation agreement with the French mobile phone company Sagem Wireless ( bankrupt in 2011 ) to introduce a Puma mobile phone, which was offered from mid-2010. In 2009, Puma also took over a majority stake in the Dutch bodywear and sock manufacturer Dobotex , with whom a license agreement had existed since 1997 (fully acquired in 2012). For the first time, Puma replaced the big cat in its logo in 2010. For the 2010 African Cup of Nations and the 2010 World Cup , Puma introduced a logo with the outline of the African continent. Franz Koch , who wanted to lead Puma back to its roots as a pure sports brand, replaced the long-standing CEO Jochen Zeitz in March 2011. Zeitz, who headed the Puma board of directors until November 2012 and then left the company, had built up Koch as his successor. Puma's legal form was changed to SE in July 2011 . In autumn 2011, Puma announced that it would equip Team Oracle's sailing team for the 34th America's Cup 2013. In the Volvo Ocean Race 2011–2012 , Puma took part as sponsor of the Puma Ocean Racing team powered by Berg Propulsion . At the end of 2013, Puma's involvement in sailing sponsorship was given up. With “Puma Factory”, Puma started again in 2013 an offer for personalized products ( mass customization ). As with the PUMA Mongolian Shoe BBQ introduced in 2005, customers were initially able to design and order three shoe models in their own colors.

Kering

Günter Herz and his sister acquired a 25.27% share in Puma in 2005 for 500 million euros through the Mayfair holding company . In 2006 Puma was listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Furthermore, a concept for improving environmental and social standards in the company's production chain was presented. In 2006 Puma presented an accessories collection with the Dutch product designer Marcel Wanders. On April 9, 2007, the French group PPR (renamed Kering in 2013 ) took over a share package of 27.1% for 1.4 billion euros from the Tchibo heirs of Herz. PPR was only able to increase its stake to 33.2% by the end of the regular acceptance period on June 20, 2007. After extending the acceptance period by a further two weeks, PPR was able to increase its stake in Puma to 62.1% by July 17, 2007.

In 2007 Zeitz's contract was extended by five years. Melody Harris-Jensbach was appointed Vice Chairman of the Executive Board in 2008. In 2008, Hussein Chalayan was appointed Creative Director of Puma; he stayed until 2012. Puma or PPR took over the majority share of his eponymous fashion label, which Chalayan later bought back from Puma. With Chalayan's appointment at the latest, Puma's numerous designer collaborations were scaled back since the end of the 1990s.

Because Franz Koch and Jochen Zeitz disagreed about the strategic direction of the group within a few months in 2011 - Zeitz had massively expanded the lifestyle division, Koch almost wanted to shut it down - and because Koch was unable to enforce fundamental restructuring measures after a profit slump in 2012, he had to vacate his post as Puma CEO in spring 2013 by decision of the Kering owners in December 2012.

After further share purchases until the end of 2013, Kering finally owned 86% of the Puma company. The remaining 14% were in free float.

In spring 2017, François-Henri Pinault left the Puma supervisory board. At the beginning of 2018, Kering announced that it would distribute the 86% stake in Puma largely as a dividend in kind among its own shareholders by mid-2018 and thus reduce it to 16%. As a result of the redistribution, the Kering founding family with its holding company Artémis Group holds approx. 29% of the company Puma, while the Kering Group itself will remain in possession of 16%. Since then, around 55% of Puma's shares have been in free float.

Realignment

On October 23, 2012, the Board of Directors unanimously elected Jean-François Palus, Group Managing Director of Puma's majority shareholder PPR, as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors with effect from December 1, 2012. The Zurich-born Norwegian and former soccer player Bjørn Gulden was appointed as the new CEO with effect from July 1, 2013.

After the company had suffered from stagnating sales and falling profits since 2012, Björn Gulden presented a new brand positioning for the company in autumn 2013. Under the motto “Forever Faster”, Puma wants to become the “fastest sports brand in the world” and concentrate more on the core sports categories of soccer, running and training, golf and motorsport. However, the product range will continue to include sports-inspired lifestyle products. As part of the restructuring and realignment, the group discontinued its sailing and rugby sports categories. Torsten Hochstetter has been the creative director of Puma since 2013. A collaboration with Rihanna began in 2015, resulting in an ongoing, high-priced collection of clothing and shoes for women called Fenty , the singer's last name , in 2016 .

In spring 2018, Puma moved into a new six-storey administration building in Herzogenaurach. An 85 meter long pedestrian bridge with a 36 meter high pylon connects the new building with the existing company headquarters.

After 20 years, Puma resumed the basketball shoe business in 2018 and appointed Jay-Z as "Creative Director" of Puma Basketball .

Well-known models

In 2008 the Puma KING celebrates its 40th birthday. The anniversary model KING XL (XL stands for the Roman number 40) is also a homage to the Portuguese soccer star Eusébio . He had scored 42 goals with the KING in 1968 and won the first ever “Golden Shoe” as the top scorer in Europe's leagues. The outstanding feature of the football shoe, which has been continuously optimized over the years, is its particularly flat cut from the start. This and the extremely flexible structure should enable particularly good ball contact. The most prominent sponsors include football legends such as Pelé , Eusébio, Vogts , Bonhof , Netzer , Cruyff , Kempes , Maradona , Völler and Matthäus .

Sponsorship activities

Usain Bolt in Puma shoes

Puma concludes sponsorship agreements with well-known athletes and sports teams to market their products . For example, the company equipped twelve of the 32 participants in the 2006 World Cup , including the eventual world champion Italy. Nine teams equipped by Puma took part in the finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Here is a small selection of the teams that Puma supplies:

Brand ambassadors

In addition, together with model Cara Delevingne and the New York City Ballet , PUMA is pursuing the goal of strengthening and animating women's self-confidence with the “Do You” campaign.

criticism

Puma was criticized by the Clean Clothes Campaign in 2007 . The wages paid by Puma in El Salvador would not be enough for the basic needs of food. Employees are therefore forced to forego breaks and work overtime in order to top up their earnings through bonuses and bonuses. In supplier companies, women workers are sometimes verbally abused and physically abused.

Equipment of the Cameroon national football team

As part of the new marketing strategy, a completely new sports kit has been designed for the Cameroon men's national soccer team . The national team appeared for the Africa Cup 2004 in a newly designed one-piece suit (the Cameroon UniQT). The jersey is body-hugging, the shorts are sewn to the skin-tight jersey.

However, FIFA saw this sportswear as a violation of its own rules, which state that the sportswear consists of a jersey and pants. The Cameroon team was fined 200,000 Swiss francs (around 125,000 euros) and six points were deducted from the team for qualifying for the 2006 World Cup . In response, Puma sued FIFA. The point deduction was withdrawn by FIFA and both parties came to an amicable agreement. However, Puma reserves the right to re-release its one-piece suit.

"Trikotgate"

During the group match between Switzerland and France in the 2016 European Football Championship on June 19, 2016, a total of seven Swiss jerseys tore during the game. The manufacturer Puma stated that the yarns of the jerseys concerned were damaged during production.

Picture gallery

literature

  • Rolf-Herbert Peters: The Puma Story. Hanser, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-446-41144-9 .
  • Barbara Smit: The Dasslers - three stripes against Puma. Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2007, ISBN 3-404-61608-1 .
  • Ralf Metzenmacher : On the road to success with retro design and new customers. In: Hansjörg Künzel (Hrsg.): Handbook customer satisfaction: Strategy and implementation in practice. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York 2005, pp. 227-254, ISBN 3-540-21144-6 .

Web links

Commons : Puma  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wrong Puma founding day causes confusion nordbayern.de, March 7, 2018
  2. ↑ a b Puma SE: Annual Report 2018 (PDF) Accessed June 13, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Kering: Financial document 2013 (annual report), February 20, 2014, p. 63.
  4. ↑ Kering sells Puma shares wiwo.de, January 11, 2018.
  5. ↑ Focus Online: Puma has a good start to the year
  6. ↑ The Dassler brothers shoe factory. Archived from the original on July 14, 2006 ; Retrieved September 25, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Adidas and Puma: Reactions to the feature film "Duell der Brüder" nordbayern.de, March 26, 2016
  8. ↑ Adidas and Puma: The end of the cold sneaker war diepresse.com, September 25, 2009
  9. ↑ Erik Kirschbaum: How Adidas and Puma were born. November 8, 2005, accessed January 11, 2010 .
  10. ↑ Miriam Zerbel: How Puma came about. April 2, 2006, accessed January 11, 2010 .
  11. ↑ Interview with Lothar Matthäus “I was Rudi Dassler's third son” berliner-zeitung.de, April 8, 2017
  12. ↑ Klaus Tscharnke: 50 years of the Puma logo: This is how the world-famous big cat came into being. January 5, 2018, accessed January 7, 2018 .
  13. ^ An affair - two world brands stern.de, September 7, 2007
  14. ↑ Adidas and Puma: The end of the cold sneaker war diepresse.com, September 25, 2009
  15. ↑ Adidas and Puma footballers n-tv.de, September 22, 2009
  16. ↑ The end of the ice age in Herzogenaurach Handelsblatt.com, September 23, 2009
  17. ↑ Der Retter der Wildkatze stern.de, May 31, 2006
  18. ↑ In giant leaps zeit.de, July 3, 2003
  19. ↑ PUMA acquires Corporate Merchandising Firm Brandon Company AB puma.com, January 12, 2009
  20. ↑ Puma takes over Brandon Company AB ( Memento from June 21, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) sponsors.de, January 13, 2009
  21. ↑ Volvo Ocean Race 2008/09 takes shape yacht.de, May 7, 2007
  22. ↑ PUMA Ocean Racing wins European Sponsorship Award yachtsandyachting.com, November 26, 2009
  23. ↑ Puma mobile phone - sporting goods manufacturer signs license agreement with Sagem. October 6, 2009, accessed January 11, 2010 .
  24. ↑ Why Puma boss Zeitz is turning into an ecomessia wiwo.de, April 28, 2010
  25. ↑ Puma swallows Dobotex whole fashionnetwork.com, May 23, 2011
  26. ^ Puma commits to Africa ( Memento of January 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Therightwinger.com , February 1, 2010, accessed July 9, 2010.
  27. ↑ Jochen Zeitz announces withdrawal to manager-magazin.de, September 19, 2012
  28. ↑ PPR increases stake in Puma to 62.1%. July 17, 2007, accessed January 11, 2010 .
  29. ↑ Makeover: 32-year-old becomes new Puma boss. Spiegel Online , July 25, 2011, accessed July 25, 2011 .
  30. ↑ PUMA to Outfit ORACLE Racing in its Quest to Defend the 34th America's Cup puma.com, August 4, 2011
  31. ↑ Puma sails at Volvo Ocean Race ( Memento from June 21, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) sponsors.de, April 9, 2010
  32. ↑ Puma brings product managers from London to the province handelsblatt.com, November 8, 2013
  33. ↑ Finally design your own Puma shoes again Source: http://egoo.de/endet-wieder-puma-schuhe-selbst-gestalten.html. (No longer available online.) Egoo , May 28, 2013, archived from the original on August 6, 2013 ; Retrieved June 17, 2013 .
  34. ↑ French luxury goods group acquires majority in Puma. July 17, 2007, accessed January 11, 2010 .
  35. ↑ Melody Harris-Jensbach becomes new Puma board member. June 5, 2007, accessed January 11, 2010 .
  36. ^ Puma boss Koch turns the company inside out Die Welt, June 16, 2012
  37. ↑ Puma CEO leaves the company - Handelsblatt, December 12, 2012
  38. ↑ Kering boss François-Henri Pinault resigns from Puma supervisory board ispo.com April 13, 2018
  39. ↑ Kering relinquishes control of Puma from handelsblatt.com, January 11, 2018
  40. ↑ Puma is free again faz.net, May 16, 2018
  41. ↑ PPR manager Palus becomes head of the board of directors at Puma. Retrieved June 21, 2013 .
  42. ↑ Jean-François Palus , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 36/2013 of September 3, 2013, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of the article freely available)
  43. ↑ Sporting goods company: Björn Gulden takes over Puma management. April 18, 2012, accessed June 21, 2013 .
  44. ↑ Puma names ex-soccer professional as new boss manager-magazin.de
  45. ↑ Puma ends sailing sponsorship as profit crumbles. February 14, 2013, accessed June 21, 2013 .
  46. ↑ Why Puma is now fully committed to women welt.de, February 18, 2016
  47. ↑ Sporty Spice meets Domina spiegel.de, September 8, 2016
  48. ↑ The fulminant comeback of the big cat welt.de, October 28, 2017
  49. ↑ "Puma-Bridge" opened: Celebrities sprint on the track infranken.de, July 13, 2017
  50. ↑ nordbayern.de: Puma pylon: Herzogenaurach's new bridge is being built here nordbayern.de, October 30, 2016
  51. ↑ Jay-Z joins Puma Basketball in a high-profile role. June 18, 2018, accessed June 13, 2019 .
  52. ↑ LAZ Puma Rhein-Sieg. Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  53. ↑ Abby Davy: List of Puma Sponsored Athletes. September 17, 2015, archived from the original ; accessed on September 17, 2015 .
  54. ↑ horizont.net: This is how the British top model advertises Puma Horizont.net, September 21, 2016
  55. ↑ Christian initiative Romero: Puma: Record profits and starvation wages in the sewing factories. (PDF; 62 kB) (No longer available online.) April 10, 2007, archived from the original on January 20, 2012 ; Retrieved January 11, 2010 .
  56. ^ Campaign for clean clothes: "Campaign for 'clean' clothes on the home straight: Action against labor law violations on behalf of Puma". August 8, 2008, archived from the original on January 19, 2012 ; Retrieved September 25, 2015 .
  57. ↑ faz.net: This is how the internet laughs at the Swiss shirts (accessed on June 26, 2016).
  58. ↑ Puma website: Statement on the Swiss national jerseys (accessed on June 26, 2016).