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Dive Brief:
About two and a half years after Arne Freundt took over as Puma’s CEO, the athletics brand is parting with the executive, citing “differing views on strategy execution.” Freundt worked at Puma for more than 14 years and will exit next week.
In his place, the activewear brand is hiring 26-year Adidas veteran Arthur Hoeld, who left his role leading global sales there in October. Hoeld, who held a variety of roles at Adidas including in marketing, brand strategy and region-specific leadership, will take over July 1.
Until then, Puma will be run by a management team consisting of Chief Product Officer Maria Valdes, Chief Financial Officer Markus Neubrand and Matthias Bäumer, who was just promoted to chief commercial officer on Tuesday.
Dive Insight:
Weeks after rolling out an evolved brand identity, Puma is changing its leadership.
Freundt focused extensively on the company’s marketing and brand positioning during his tenure, including leading a marketing reorganization that saw its brand operations move from Boston back to Germany. At the same time, the company opened a creative hub in Germany, has plans for its first European flagship to open this fall and will debut a design space in Los Angeles aimed at winning share in the U.S.
The latest brand campaign is Puma’s largest global campaign to date and will see the company increase marketing investments by 40% this year. However, the retailer is also on a mission to trim costs: Puma announced a “comprehensive efficiency program” at the start of the year to improve its profitability. Net sales were up 2.5% for the year, though net income came in below expectations.
Puma’s new leader has a strong track record at Adidas, including bolstering its Originals division to 7 billion euros in sales ($7.7 billion at press time).
“We are convinced that thanks to his strategic vision and focus on product and brand, Arthur will lead Puma into a new chapter of strength and growth,” Héloïse Temple-Boyer, chair of the Supervisory Board of Puma, said in a statement.
Upon Hoeld’s departure from Adidas, the retailer’s chairman praised him for his “strong commercial experience” and said the executive had played “an integral part” in Adidas’ turnaround. Both Puma and Adidas are headquartered in the same town in Germany and have struggled to compete with Nike in North America.
Under Freundt, Puma had appointed a slew of new leaders, including a senior director of global brand strategy, a vice president of DTC and a senior vice president focused on North American wholesale sales.