BJØRN GULDEN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF PUMA SE:

"The second quarter was another great quarter for us. With a currency-adjusted growth of 18% (26% reported) to € 2,002 million, we exceeded € 2 billion in quarterly sales for the first time in PUMA’s history. This underlines the strong demand for our products despite all the global obstacles and uncertainties! I am especially proud that we have again seen very strong growth in all our performance categories like Running, Training, Teamsports, Golf and Basketball. We feel that the increased investments into R&D, Innovation and Product Development over the past years are starting to pay off. Our Gross Margin is currently of course under pressure and declined by 100 basis points to 46.5%, mainly due to an unfavorable geographical and channel mix as well as the higher freight rates. Despite increasing costs, we will continue to focus on keeping our prices competitive and will prioritize sales growth and market share gains above short-term profitability. Due to our strong sales growth we managed to increase our EBIT by 34% from € 109 million in Q2 2021 to € 146 million in Q2 2022 despite increased investments into marketing and sales and higher warehousing costs. We do see an increased level of uncertainty around the world: COVID-19 is still around us, the crisis in Ukraine is worse than ever and there is high inflationary pressure in almost all our markets. Despite all these uncertainties we will continue to invest into our people, brand and infrastructure. We will also continue with our “People First” attitude and do everything we can to ensure the health and safety of all our people, especially in Ukraine. The PUMA Family means more than short-term profitability. I remain optimistic for our sector in general and the PUMA brand in particular and we even raise our revenue outlook for the full year 2022.”