For the first time in the company’s history, German sportswear and footwear designer and manufacturer, Puma, has seen its global sales for 2004 break the €2 billion mark, exceeding the company’s analysts’ expectations.

Consolidated sales increased by 23.8% currency adjusted. In euro terms, sales rose by 20% to €273 million ($348.9 million). Footwear sales increased on a currency neutral basis by 29.1% (25.2% in euros) to €176 million. Apparel climbed 14.4% (11.4%) to €77 million, and accessories grew 16.1% (12.6%) to €21 million. All regions contributed with a double-digit growth to the successful quarter. The company said that due to investments in marketing/retail as well as product development and design, operating expenses increased from 33.7% to 35.8% of sales.

As a result of the favourable sales development and a significant improvement in gross profit margin, pretax profit rose 56.4% over last year. Net earnings improved from €25 million to €37 million.

European sales were up significantly by 17.6% to € 1,002 million and surpassed €1 billion for the first-time. As expected, the strongest growth was achieved in apparel, where sales rose by 26.6%. Footwear and accessories also reported very good growth of 14.8% and 6.4%, respectively.

Once again, profitability increased significantly in Europe. The gross profit margin climbed from 51.3% to a new high of 54.1% and the operating margin (EBIT) rose from 25.2% to 28.7% of regional sales. Orders on hand reached a new all-time high of €567 million at the end of 2004. This corresponds to an increase of 9.4% over the previous year.

Regional sales in the Americas were up 29.6% currency adjusted or 18.7% in euro terms, rising to €303 million. All product segments contributed to this success. The Americas also achieved a significant increase in profitability. The gross profit margin climbed to 49.3%. The operating margin increased from 16.6% to 19.8%. The currency-adjusted orders volume was up by 43.4%, 19.4% in euros to €137 million.

Asia/Pacific sales were €181 million or 31.6% higher than the previous year’s level of €138 million, which corresponds to a currency-adjusted increase of 28.1%. The gross profit margin in this region improved perceptibly by 3.7 percentage points to 48.1%, and the operating margin rose from 17.7% to 21.9%. As of December 31, 2004, orders on hand were up 23% to €83 million, showing a significant increase over the previous year’s level.

In Africa/Middle East consolidated sales increased significantly by 52.6% to €45 million. All product segments reported substantial growth: Accessories grew by 114.6%, apparel by 92.9% and footwear by 41.5%.

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