By Dora Pusztai
The last few years riddled with economic hardships have been inevitably challenging for the retail sector as well. Such a climate pushes brands to revise their existing strategies or explore new directions, starting from scratch.
The sports company PUMA has experienced their fair share of economic challenges in recent years, and therefore decided to take conscious action and rethink their business strategy. Prefaced by a reset strategy followed through 2025 to set the stage for renewal, PUMA named 2026 as the brand’s transition year with four focus areas: Football, Running, Training, and Sportstyle Prime & Select.
“It is crucial to make the PUMA brand less commercial and ensure we once again excite our consumers with attractive products, compelling storytelling and distribution in the right channels.”
Arthur Hoeld, Chief Executive Officer of PUMA SE
After seven months in 2026, the company has already made significant corporate changes, including their business structure rework and the introduction of new positions.
Hiring industry excellence for the new structure
In early February 2026, PUMA has announced a crucial step: dedicating an independent Business Unit for the Training focus area, separating it from the grouped category of Running and Training. This way, the two focus categories enjoy the same amount of emphasis and strategic care, allowing for more growth.
In this new structure, seasoned expert Marwin Hoffmann has been appointed as Vice President for Business Unit Training with immediate effect. Boasting more than 20 years of experience in the product and marketing field, Marwin has previously occupied the role of VP Marketing Global Outdoor at adidas. As for the other part of the separated areas, Erin Longin continues to lead the company’s Business Unit Running.
Marwin Hoffmann
Vice President for Business Unit Training
Standing now with four separate focus Units, one of the most important tasks is to maintain a creative but stable brand cohesion. The role of Senior Vice President Creative Direction has been created for this purpose, which is occupied by adidas-veteran James Carnes since April 2026. His responsibility includes creating alignment between PUMA’s creative direction to the overall strategic goals, as well as coordinating the seasonal direction for the individual Business Units.
James Carnes
Senior Vice President Creative Direction
PUMA also strengthened its Sportstyle Business Unit, the division tasked with utilizing the brand’s archive to turn heritage sport products into culturally relevant, trend-driven releases, built around names such as the Suede and Speedcat, whose roots lie in sport but whose appeal now extends well beyond it. In April 2026, PUMA named Laurent Fricker as Vice President of the Unit, effective June 1. Fricker is also a highly experienced industry expert with previous roles at adidas and Reebok, having built out several successful product franchises in the past.
Laurent Fricker
Vice President of the Sportstyle Business Unit
Dedicating a leadership role for its wholesale channel, PUMA appointed Bertrand Blanc as Vice President Global Wholesale in a newly established position starting May 1. His mandate covers shaping and driving the company’s global sales strategy, pushing revenue growth, and raising the brand’s profile at major wholesale partners worldwide.
Beyond the Business Unit changes, PUMA also strengthened its leadership at Management Board and regional director level. Effective May 1, 2026, the Supervisory Board appointed Mark Langer as Chief Financial Officer, taking over Finance, Tax, Legal, Investor Relations and Internal Audit from outgoing CFO Markus Neubrand, who stepped down the same day and will leave the company at the end of September. Langer brings more than 25 years of international finance leadership, most recently as CFO and Managing Board member at Douglas AG, and previously spent 17 years at HUGO BOSS AG, serving as CEO from 2016 to 2020 and CFO from 2010 to 2017.
Mark Langer
Chief Financial Officer
A few months later, PUMA named Dennis Schroeder Managing Director Europe, effective August 17, succeeding Javier Ortega and reporting to Chief Commercial Officer Matthias Baeumer. Schroeder returns to PUMA, where he held several sales roles between 2010 and 2015, after most recently serving as CEO of SNIPES, bringing with him extensive experience across omnichannel retail and commercial operations.
The appointment of Marcia Dos Santos as Vice President of Business Unit Core is PUMA’s most recent strategic effort, bringing in another experienced professional who has previously worked at Nike as VP Merchandising Women’s EMEA.
Marcia Dos Santos
Vice President of Business Unit Core
With four Business Units now in place and a refreshed leadership across brand, commercial and finance functions, the question is whether any of this shows up in PUMA’s actual performance yet.
The numbers so far
The year 2025 was difficult. Currency-adjusted sales dropped 8.1% to €7.30 billion, and PUMA closed the year with a reported EBIT loss of €357.2 million and a net loss of €645.5 million, among the largest in the company’s history. Q4 alone saw sales fall 20.1%, and the board ultimately scrapped the dividend altogether.
Q1 2026 results look a bit more encouraging. Sales were down just 1.0% on a currency-adjusted basis, to €1,863.8 million from €1,989.8 million a year earlier. That’s a steep slowdown from the double-digit declines PUMA was reporting only months before. EBIT, meanwhile, rose to €51.9 million, up 19.6% year-on-year, with gross margin benefiting from faster inventory clearance and a growing DTC share, now at 28.3% of sales versus 27.5% in Q1 2025.
A truly sustainable growth strategy takes time, and as PUMA stated, 2026 is dedicated to transition. But a company that lost significant numbers last year just posted a profitable quarter without needing sales growth to do it. If that holds as the new leadership settles in, the real payoff, above-industry growth and healthy margins, is what PUMA is targeting from 2027.
