DGAP-News

PUMA SE: First Quarter Sales Show Growth of PUMA - Seite 2

In the Americas region, sales grew by 5.6% currency-adjusted to EUR 289
million, with both North America and Latin America developing positively.

Asia/Pacific sales increased by 10.9% currency-adjusted to EUR 191 million
with strong performance in China and India supported by the improved
Footwear business.

Footwear leads segment performance in the first quarter
Footwear sales increased by 7.8% currency-adjusted to EUR 378 million. This
was driven by a higher demand for PUMA's Running, Training & Fitness
products, which was partly triggered by the successful launch of the PUMA
IGNITE running shoe in mid-February.

Apparel sales increased by 5.7% currency-adjusted to EUR 280 million. A
strong demand for PUMA's Fundamentals, Running, Training & Fitness and Golf
products underpinned this good performance.

Accessories sales decreased by 4.6% currency-adjusted to EUR 163 million.
This is related to lower sales of socks and bodywear in the North American
market.

Satisfying retail performance
PUMA's first quarter Retail sales increased by 7.3% on a currency-adjusted
basis to EUR 144 million, with comparable sales in full-price stores and
outlets slightly up. PUMA also operated a higher number of stores. Retail
sales represented 17.5% of total sales compared to 17.1% last year.

Negative currency impacts affect gross profit margin
PUMA's gross profit margin declined from 48.5% to 46.9% in the first
quarter, solely due to negative currency impacts. The strength of the US
Dollar compared to major "unhedged" and not fully hedged currencies
including Russian Ruble, Mexican Peso, Brazilian Real, Turkish Lira and
Argentinian Peso led to this decrease. The Footwear gross profit margin
declined from 44.1% to 42.9%. Apparel decreased from 53.6% to 50.7%, and
Accessories remained at previous year's level of 49.6% (Q1 2014: 49.7%). In
absolute figures, gross profit increased by 9.3% in reported terms from EUR
352 million to EUR 385 million.


Higher OPEX in line with expectations
As communicated previously, PUMA continued to invest in the "Forever
Faster" marketing campaign in the first quarter 2015. There was no major
campaign in the first quarter in 2014. In addition, we have started to
invest in our IT infrastructure and we continued with our retail strategy
to open additional retail stores, mainly in emerging markets. As with the