Mumbai: German sportswear maker Puma said it continued to be India’s largest sports and apparel brand on the back of a 10% increase in sales last calendar year amid top management attrition and slowing demand for discretionary products.
For the fiscal year ended December, its revenue stood at ₹3,274 crore, as per filings with the Registrar of Companies, much higher than that of rivals Adidas, Nike and Reebok and Skechers, and fast fashion brands Zara and H&M.
Puma said it is shifting its strategy to a sports and performance-first brand instead of just lifestyle and athleisure.
“One of the things that we will be doing going forward is to really lead with performance. We need to be credible in the sports side, because that allows us to play in the athleisure side,” said Karthik Balagopalan in his first media interaction after taking over as the MD at Puma India last year. “We get roughly a quarter of sales from sports performance products, which could shift to a third going forward.”
The company recently partnered the Athletics Federation of India as their official kit partner to equip more than 400 athletes with footwear, apparel and accessories. The brand also joined Indian Olympic Association as its official footwear partner that provided athletes with podium and travel footwear, along with accessories for the Olympics.
India is one of the fastest-growing and largest international markets for footwear companies. Globally, India is one of the fastest-growing and top 3 markets for Puma Group.
Last year, Puma’s former managing director Abhishek Ganguly, along with Atul Bajaj, sales and operations head, and Amit Prabhu, chief financial officer, quit to start their own sports firm. Balagopalan joined at a time when most lifestyle and apparel segments were seeing sales growth taper off after three years of revenge shopping.
“Demand has been a bit muted and challenging but at the same time, if you look at the overall growth rate of the category, we are still in the high single digit. When it comes to health and fitness, consumers are not shying away from spending on it and our strategy also leans towards that,” said Balagopalan, adding that he expects recovery by the festive season.
