| Type | Societas Europaea |
|---|---|
| Traded as | FWB: PUM |
| Industry | Clothing and consumer goods manufacture |
| Founded | 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (registered in 1948)[1] |
| Founder(s) | Rudolf Dassler |
| Headquarters | Herzogenaurach, Germany |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Jochen Zeitz (Chairman) Franz Koch (CEO) Klaus Bauer (COO) |
| Products | Footwear, sportswear, sports goods, fashion accessories |
| Revenue | €2.706 billion (2010)[2] |
| Operating income | €306.8 million (2010)[2] |
| Profit | €202.2 million (2010)[2] |
| Total assets | €2.367 billion (end 2010)[2] |
| Total equity | €1.386 billion (end 2010)[2] |
| Employees | 9,310 (average, 2010)[2] |
| Parent | PPR |
| Website | www.puma.com |
Puma SE, officially branded as PUMA, is a major German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear. Formed in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, relationships between the two brothers deteriorated until the two agreed to split in 1948, forming two separate entities, Adidas and Puma. Puma is currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
The company is known for its football shoes and has sponsored acclaimed footballers, including Pelé, Eusébio, Johan Cruijff, Enzo Francescoli, Diego Maradona, Lothar Matthäus, Kenny Dalglish, Didier Deschamps, Robert Pires, Radamel Falcao, Ryan Giggs and Gianluigi Buffon. Puma is also the sponsor of the Jamaican track athlete Usain Bolt. In the United States, the company is probably best known for the suede basketball shoe it introduced in 1968, which eventually bore the name of New York Knicks basketball star Walt "Clyde" Frazier, and for its endorsement partnership with Joe Namath.
Following the split from his brother, Rudolf Dassler originally registered the new-established company as Ruda, but later changed to Puma.[3]:31 Puma's earliest logo consisted of a square and beast jumping through a D, which was registered, along with the company's name, in 1948. Puma's shoe designs feature the distinctive "Formstripe",[3]:33 with clothing and other products having the logo printed on them.
The company also offers lines shoes and sports clothing, designed by Lamine Kouyate, Amy Garbers and others. Since 1996 Puma has intensified its activities in the United States. Puma owns 25% of American brand sports clothing maker Logo Athletic, which is licensed by American professional basketball and association football leagues. Since 2007 Puma SE has been part of the French luxury group PPR.
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Christoph von Wilhelm Dassler was a worker in a shoe factory, while his wife Pauline ran a small laundry in the Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach, 20 km (12.4 mi) from the city of Nuremberg. Their son Rudolf Dassler, after leaving school, joined his father at the shoe factory, and was then called up to fight in World War I. Upon his return, Rudolf received a management position at a porcelain factory, and later in a leather wholesale business in Nuremberg.
Rudolf Dassler returned to Herzogenaurach in 1924 to join his younger brother Adolf, nicknamed "Adi", who had founded his own shoe factory. They named the new business Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). The pair started their venture in their mother's laundry, but at the time, electricity supplies in the town were unreliable, and the brothers sometimes had to use pedal power from a stationary bicycle to run their equipment.[4]
By the 1936 Summer Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world's first motorways to the Olympic village with a suitcase full of spikes and persuaded United States sprinter Jesse Owens to use them, the first sponsorship for an African American. After Owens won four gold medals, his success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world's most famous sportsmen. Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes annually before World War II.[5]
Both brothers joined the Nazi Party, but Rudolf was slightly closer to the party. During the war, a growing rift between the pair reached a breaking point after an Allied bomb attack in 1943 when Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in. "Here are the bloody bastards again," Adi said, apparently referring to the Allied war planes, but Rudolf was convinced his brother meant him and his family.[3]:18 After Rudolf was later picked up by American soldiers and accused of being a member of the Waffen SS, he was convinced that his brother had turned him in.[4]
In 1948, the brothers split their business. Rudolf moved to the other side of the Aurach River to start his own company. It was from this split that Adolf started his own sportswear company with the name he formed using his nickname "Adi" and the first three letters of his last name "Das", to establish Adidas. Rudolf created a new firm that he called Ruda – from "Ru" in Rudolf and "Da" in Dassler. Rudolf's company later changed its name to Puma Schuhfabrik Rudolf Dassler in 1948.[6]
Following the split, Puma and Adidas initiated a fierce and bitter rivalry with each other. The enmity split Herzogenaurach into two, leading to the nickname "the town of bent necks" – people looked down to see which shoes strangers wore.[7] Even the town's two football clubs were also divided: ASV Herzogenaurach club supported the three stripes, while 1 FC Herzogenaurach endorsed Rudolf's footwear.[8] When handymen were called to Rudolf's home, they would wear Adidas shoes deliberately so that when Rudolf would see their footwear, he would tell them to go to the basement and pick out a pair of free Puma shoes.[4] The two brothers never reconciled, and although both are buried in the same cemetery, they are spaced apart as far as possible.
In 1948, the first football match after World War II, several members of the West German national football team wore Puma boots, including the scorer of West Germany's first post-war goal, Herbert Burdenski. Four years later, at the 1952 Summer Olympics, 1500 metres runner Josy Barthel of Luxembourg won Puma's first Olympic gold in Helsinki, Finland.
At the 1960 Summer Olympics Puma paid German sprinter Armin Hary to wear Pumas in the 100 metres sprint final. Hary had worn Adidas before and asked Adolf for payment, but Adidas rejected this request. The German won gold in Pumas, but then laced up Adidas for the medals ceremony – to the shock of the two Dassler brothers. Hary hoped to cash in from both with the trick, but Adi was so enraged he banned the Olympic champion.[5]
A few months prior to the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Armin Dassler and his cousin, Horst Dassler, sealed an agreement which was dubbed "The Pelé pact". This agreement dictated that Pelé would be out of bounds for both Adidas and Puma. However, Armin found the potential financial and marketing advantage of sponsoring the superstar irresistible. Pelé complied with a request by Puma's representative Hans Henningsen to increase the awareness and profile of the German sports shoe company after he received $120,000 to wear the Formstripes.[5] At the opening whistle of a 1970 World Cup finals match, Pelé stopped the referee with a last-second request to tie his shoelaces before kneeling down to give millions of television viewers a close-up of his Pumas.[3]:82 This outraged Horst Dassler and future peace agreements were called off.
Two years later, during the 1972 Summer Olympics, Puma provided running shoes for the Ugandan 400 metres hurdles champion, John Akii-Bua. After Akii-Bua was forced out of Uganda by its military government, Puma employed Ake Bua in Germany, and tried to help integrate him and his family in German society, but eventually Akii-Bua returned to Uganda.
In May 1989, Rudolf's sons Armin and Gerd Dassler agreed to sell their 72 percent stake in Puma to Swiss business Cosa Liebermann SA.[9]
Puma became a public company in 1986, and thereafter was listed on the Börse München and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Puma AG has approximately 9,500 employees and distributes its products in more than 120 countries. For the fiscal year 2003, the company had a revenue of €1.274 billion. Puma were the commercial sponsors for the 2002 anime series Hungry Heart: Wild Striker, with the jerseys and clothing sporting the Puma brand. Puma ranks as one of the top shoe brands after Reebok, Adidas and Nike.[10]
The company has been led by CEO and Chairman Jochen Zeitz since 1993. His contract was extended until 2012 in October 2007.[11]
Japanese fashion guru Mihara Yasuhiro teamed up with Puma to create a high-end and high-concept line of sneakers[12]
Puma is the main producer of enthusiast driving shoes and race suits. They are the prime producer in both Formula One and NASCAR especially. They also won the rights to sponsor the 2006 FIFA World Cup champions, the Italian national football team, making and sponsoring the clothing worn by the team. Their partnership with Ferrari, Ducati and BMW to make Puma-Ferrari, Puma-Ducati and Puma-BMW shoes has also contributed to this success. On 15 March 2007, Puma launched its first new 2007/2008 line of uniforms for a club, and Brazilian football club Grêmio will be the first to use the laser sewn technology, similar to the one worn by Italy at the 2006 World Cup. Grêmio and other Brazilian clubs will be the first to use the technology because their season starts six months earlier than European clubs.
In 2008, Puma commemorated the 40th anniversary of the "King" model of boots with a special anniversary edition,[13] the King XL (XL is 40 in Roman Numerals), a tribute to Portuguese footballer Eusébio, who scored 42 goals with King boots in 1968, winning the Golden Boot Award as Europe's leading scorer. Puma have continued to release new versions of the King range, and released a version in 2009 to celebrate the history of Italian soccer, and in particular double World Cup winning coach Vittorio Pozzo, the Puma King XL Italia.[14]
In 2010, a Puma King model was released commemorating the 50th birthday of Diego Maradona with a model called the Puma King Diego Finale football boot. This edition was created in the colours of the La Albiceleste of the Argentina National football team.
In February 2007, Puma reported that its profits had fallen by 26% to €32.8 million ($43 million; £22 million) during the final three months of 2006. Most of the profit decline was due to higher costs linked to its expansion, and sales rose by more than a third to €480.6 million.[15]
In early April 2007, Puma's shares rose €29.25 per share, or about 10.2%, at €315.24 per share.[16] On 10 April 2007, French retailer and owner of Gucci brand Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) announced that it had bought a 27% stake in Puma, clearing the way for a full takeover. The deal values Puma at €5.3 billion. PPR said that it would launch a "friendly" takeover for Puma, worth €330 a share, once the acquisition of the smaller stake was completed. The board of Puma welcomed the move, saying it was fair and in the firm's best interests.[17] Since 17 July 2007 PPR have 62.1 % of Puma stocks. While PPR owns the majority of Puma's stock, Puma remains an independent company.
In July 2011, the company completed a conversion from an Aktiengesellschaft (German public limited company) to a Societas Europaea, the European Union-wide equivalent, changing its name from Puma AG Rudolf Dassler Sport to Puma SE.[18] At the same time, Franz Koch replaced the long-serving Jochen Zeitz as the firm's CEO, with Zeitz becoming chairman.
Organizations promoting fair trade and worker's rights criticize Puma's employment practices in their developing world factories, predominantly relating to workers in China, Turkey, El Salvador, and Indonesia.[19][20][21]
Puma, like many globalised corporations, believes that “labour flexibility remains one of the key components to ensure that individual companies survive and grow”. These “flexible” labour practices allow the company to manufacture quickly and cheaply, but often under exploitative conditions.[22]
Freedom of association
Puma’s 2009 supplier list included close to 350 suppliers, the majority of which are located in Asia, predominately China followed by Vietnam.[23] In these locations, Puma reports that the rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining have been difficult to enforce.[24] According to human rights and labour organisations,[25] Puma does not have adequate policies in place to encourage suppliers to recognise workers’ union rights. Puma does not require suppliers to issue their workers with the right to form a union, nor does it require suppliers to sign union access agreements.[26]
Puma frequently has short term contracts with its suppliers, which means that at any time it can leave an area, and its workers, if they can source their products more cheaply elsewhere.[27] This lack of stability does not give supplier factories a good incentive to respect workers’ rights. For instance in 2004 Puma decided to stop ordering garments from the Lian Thai factory in Thailand just after the factory had agreed to cease discrimination against trade union members.[28] In another incident, following the formation of an independent union at one of Puma’s Mexican suppliers, the company cut orders from the factory.[29]
At the same time, Puma has not taken action to minimise the use of short term contracts,[22] whereas the prevalence of these contracts creates an atmosphere of economic insecurity and makes it difficult for workers to organise for their rights.
Low wages
In a number of regions, sportswear workers producing for Puma have been increasingly vocal about the serious inadequacy of their wages.[30] Puma has not yet made a full commitment to pay a living wage.[31] Puma is currently undertaking research into finding a practical solution to the problem of low wages in Asia, and is working with suppliers in Indonesia, India and Cambodia to assess the feasibility of a minimum living wage.[32] Labour organisations, such as the Asia Floor Wage campaign, hope that this process with lead to the implementation of living wages in the future. In the meanwhile, Puma has admitted that it is still trying to achieving full compliance with the minimum wage at a number of its suppliers.[33]
Steps in the right direction
On a positive note, the company has made some steps towards greater transparency. In the year 2000 Puma began auditing all of its suppliers on a yearly basis and it makes finding of its audits available in its sustainability reports.[34] Since 2005 it has also made a list of its suppliers publicly available.
Puma has also made a strong commitment to respecting workers rights in some areas. For example Puma has obtained the highly reputed Ethical Clothing Australia accreditation for its Australian-made products.[35] While this labour friendly accreditation applies to only a tiny percentage of Puma’s total production, it does show that the brand has the capacity to do more to support the rights and welfare of the workers who make its products.
In July 2011, Puma - along with other major sportswear brands including Nike, Adidas and Abercrombie & Fitch - was the subject of a report by the environmental group Greenpeace entitled 'Dirty Laundry'. Puma is accused of working with suppliers in China who, according the findings of the report, contribute to the pollution of the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers. Samples taken from one facility belonging to the Youngor Group located on the Yangtze River Delta and another belonging to the Well Dyeing Factory Ltd. located on a tributary of the Pearl River Delta revealed the presence of hazardous and persistent hormone disruptor chemicals, including alkylphenols, perfluorinated compounds and perfluorooctane sulfonate.[36]
Less than two weeks after the release of the Dirty Laundry report, Puma made a public commitment to deal with the issues raised by Greenpeace. The company's statement asserts that "Puma is committed to eliminate the discharges of all hazardous chemicals from the whole lifecycle and all production procedures that are associated with the making and using of Puma products."[37] Greenpeace also confirmed Puma's commitment to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals from its entire product lifecycle, and across its global supply chain by 2020.[38]
Many football experts, like Sepp Herberger, are involved.
Puma is a sponsor of sporting events and identities, in Germany and internationally. From its origins in football, the company sponsors numerous footballers and national football teams; the "Formstripe" especially has a heavy presence in Africa. Puma is also the sponsor of a number of Premier League teams, most notably Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United (both until the end of 2011/12 season). In Australia, Brisbane Roar FC announced Puma as its Hyundai A-League exclusive apparel partner for three seasons beginning 2011/12.[40]
In Australian rules football, Puma has long-standing marketing relationships with the Hawthorn Football Club and West Coast Eagles, along with the Brisbane Lions. With Hawthorn especially, Puma has been the club's apparel sponsor since the 1980s, during the club's most successful era.
In cricket, Puma is the official apparel sponsor for the Deccan Chargers(Team representing the city of Hyderabad), and Rajasthan Royals(Team representing the city if Jaipur) in the Indian Premier League.[41][42] International cricketers such as Yuvraj Singh(India), Adam Gilchrist (Australia) and Brendon McCullum (New Zealand) endorse the brand, and use the brand's cricket gear.[43]
In Rugby Union Puma entered an eight year contract as official apparel sponsor of the Irish Rugby team since the beginning of season 2009–10,[44] PUMA supply team kit, replica kit and training equipment. Puma also sponsor English premiership side Bath Rugby.
On 10 March 2010 Puma announced it will acquire 100 percent of Cobra Golf, based in Carlsbad, California, from Fortune Brands Inc., but did not provide any financial details. The deal which faces regulatory approval is expected to close in the second quarter.[45]