Puma reaffirms positive outlook despite supply chain strain

BERLIN (Reuters) - German sportswear company Puma said on Thursday it remained concerned about the strain the coronavirus pandemic is putting on its supply chain, but reiterated the mid-term outlook for the sector and company remained positive.

Chief Executive Bjorn Gulden said Puma was able to overcome shortages of freight capacity, harbour congestion and COVID-19 restrictions in some countries to report strong sales and earnings growth in the second quarter thanks to strong demand.

"We are, of course, still worried about the impact COVID-19 will continue to have on our business in the short-term, now especially in the supply chain," Gulden said in a statement.

"But we continue to be very positive for the mid-term outlook for our sector in general and specifically for PUMA."

The company, which outfitted Puma European soccer champions Italy, confirmed preliminary second-quarter sales and earnings figures released two weeks ago with currency-adjusted sales nearly doubling to 1.59 billion euros ($1.88 billion) and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of around 109 million euros.

The company also reaffirmed its 2021 outlook for currency-adjusted sales increase of at least 20% after earlier predicting percentage growth in mid-teens.

($1 = 0.8435 euros)

(Reporting by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Caroline Copley)