Puma - Logo
Puma - Logo
Background

Founded in Herzogenaurach, Germany in 1948, PUMA is one of the world’s largest providers of Sportlifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories. The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA, Cobra Golf and Tretorn. The company distributes its products in more than 120 countries and employs more than 9,000 people worldwide. It is committed to working in ways that contribute to the world by supporting Creativity, Sustainability and Peace, and by staying true to the principles of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative in decisions made and actions taken.

Over the years, PUMA has stayed true to its four cornerstones: heritage, sport, technological innovation and design. The brand is focusing on bringing distinctive designs and a global outlook to each product range by blending influences of sport, lifestyle and fashion. This fusion is known as “Sportlifestyle”. PUMA views sport as a philosophy on life – one that emphasizes fitness, wellness and simply living an active life. Since Sport can be different things to different people, PUMA approaches it in a greater-lifestyle context, while not compromising performance. This is exactly what the brand means when it speaks of “Sportlifestyle”.

In 1993, at the age of thirty, Jochen Zeitz was appointed chairman & CEO. Zeitz has Spearheaded and held primary responsibility for the worldwide restructuring of PUMA, which was in financial difficulties at the time. He reached the first major milestone within
his first year as CEO, when PUMA delivered its first profitable performance since 1986, posting consolidated sales of 210 million Euros with an EBIT of 23 million Euros in 1994. In 2009, PUMA reached net earnings of 128 million Euros and consolidated sales of 2.5 billion Euros. The share price rose from 8.6 Euros in 1993 to an all time high of 350 Euros in April 2007. Zeitz managed to turn PUMA from a low price brand into a premium Sportlifestyle company and one of the top 3 brands in the sporting good industry by sticking to a long-term development plan that he introduced in 1993. In 2007, French luxury group PPR, one of the world’s top fashion and retail companies, acquired more than 60 percent of PUMA. With the support of PPR, PUMA plans to strengthen its position as the leading company in the Sportlifestyle market with a continued focus on long-term sustainable growth.

With the objective of being "The Most Desirable and Sustainable Sportlifestyle Company”, PUMA's position as one of the few, true multi-category brands is to be strengthened and the opportunities offered by the sportlifestyle market are to be systematically exploited in all categories and regions. As a multi-category supplier, PUMA is active in categories and business fields/divisions that suit its unique brand positioning, and in which permanent value increases can be achieved for the company. PUMAVision forms the guiding principle for PUMA and their global partnerships and commitments. It combines the concepts and initiatives of PUMA with respect to „entrepreneurial sustainability” and „social responsibility“. The four principles of PUMAVision, fair, honest, positive and creative constitute the compass of their company, employees, partners and target groups with respect to all their decisions. PUMAVision reflects their vision of a better world - a world that is more peaceful, safer, and more creative than the world that we know today.