By Helen Reid and Ozan Ergenay
(Reuters) -Puma shares plunged 16% on Friday after the German sportswear brand said it now expects an annual loss as sales decline and U.S. tariffs dent profit.
CEO Arthur Hoeld, in the role since July 1, said the company needed to “course-correct”.
“This year, 2025, will be a reset for Puma and 2026 will be a transition year for us,” Hoeld, formerly sales chief at Adidas, told journalists on a conference call.
“We as a company need to take a hard look at ourselves,” he added.
Puma said U.S. tariffs would likely reduce its gross profit this year by about 80 million euros despite efforts to offset the pain.
Chief Financial Officer Markus Neubrand said Puma would hike prices in the U.S. in the fourth quarter to partly mitigate the tariff impact, but declined to say how much prices would go up.
Sportswear retailers like Nike, Adidas and Puma rely on Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam for the sneakers and clothes they import into the U.S., making them especially exposed to tariffs.
Puma frontloaded shipments of goods from Asia ahead of successive U.S. tariff deadlines, Neubrand said, driving inventory levels up and contributing to more discounting.
In its earnings report late on Thursday, Puma said annual sales would decline by at least 10%, having previously forecast low to mid-single-digit growth.
Puma’s second-quarter currency-adjusted sales of 1.94 billion euros ($2.3 billion) were weaker than analysts expected, with North America sales dropping 9.1% and Europe down 3.9%.
The company did not say how big the annual loss is likely to be. It previously forecast earnings before interest and tax of between 445 million euros and 525 million euros for the year.
Puma also cut its capital expenditure plans for the year to 250 million euros from 300 million euros previously.
Puma has been struggling to attract shoppers as re-released retro sneakers, such as the Speedcat, have not sold as well as hoped.
(Reporting by Ozan Ergenay in Gdansk and Helen Reid in London; Editing by Matt Scuffham, Tomasz Janowski and Edwina Gibbs)