Jochen Zietz, in a published interview, said that Puma had decided to drop the $13 million sponsorship of Serena Williams in favor of becoming the official supplier of the Formula One BMW Williams team, its sixth F1 team.
“We would have certainly been able to afford the contract, but for strategic reasons we have decided against it and therefore in the end did not submit a final offer,” said Zeitz.
Zeitz also updated guidance for 2004. Puma “aims to deliver double-digit growth in net profit and sales in 2004 after comfortably achieving its goals for this year”, and stating that “Looking at the order backlog so far, double-digit growth is definitely something we will shoot for.”
He went to say that Puma now holds a 2.0% share in the U.S. “We should be showing strong growth (in the U.S.) this year, up to 40% in a currency-neutral basis. We also continue to be positive going forward.”
>>> Given the number of motorsports styles now in the line, this F1 sponsorship makes more sense than chasing the non-core tennis looks…
