Puma sees sales, profit growth in 2016, despite strong dollar

Puma, the German maker of sportswear and equipment, said Thursday that it "made progress" in 2015 and expects to further strong growth in 2016, even if it is feeling the pinch of the strong dollar.

"The year ended with a strong fourth quarter showing double-digit reported growth across all regions and all product categories," said chief executive Bjorn Gulden.

"We have seen progress in our performance categories, led by running and training, as well as our lifestyle business where especially our classic styles developed strongly in the second half of the year," Gulden said.

Unfortunately, the strong dollar "has had a significant impact on both our gross profit margin and our operating expenses and therefore also on our (underlying) and net earnings," the CEO continued.

Net profit fell by 42 percent to 37.1 million euros ($41 million) in 2015 and underlying or operating profit was down 24.8 percent at 96.3 million euros, while sales grew by 14 percent to 3.387 billion euros.

"But we feel that we as a company have made progress in 2015 and that we have laid the groundwork for high single-digit sales growth as well as improved (underlying) and net earnings in 2016."

With the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil, Copa America in the United States and the UEFA Euro 2016 in France, 2016 promised to be a "great sports year," Gulden said.

"We feel we are well prepared," he insisted.