Three high executives at Puma India, Abhishek Ganguly, the corporate’s managing director, Amit Prabhu, chief monetary officer and Atul Bajaj, head of gross sales and operations, have resigned from the sportswear agency, to start out their very own athleisure model.
Karthik Balagopalan, who has labored with Puma India and is at present primarily based in its dwelling market Germany, is prone to take over as the brand new head of Puma in India, two individuals conscious of the event mentioned.
Ganguly joined the Indian unit of the worldwide footwear and attire firm at its inception in 2005 and have become its MD practically a decade later in 2014. Beneath him, Puma’s gross sales rose five-fold from Rs600 crore in 2014 to just about Rs3000 crore final calendar 12 months. He additionally drove an aggressive retailer growth technique – taking the entire door depend from 150 to over 480 retailers in his nine-year stint on the helm.
“Ganguly is leaving after a protracted stint with India. The brand new enterprise is within the athleisure house,” one of many sources instructed ET.
Puma India didn’t reply to an e-mail question despatched to them.
Over the previous few years, rising consciousness about health and surging demand for athleisurewear have helped the section, whereas the journey increase has led to individuals spending extra on casualwear.
Throughout the 2022 calendar 12 months, Puma posted a 46% bounce in gross sales in India, with its income touching Rs 2,980 crore, outselling rivals Adidas, Nike and Reebok mixed.
In India, the model now boasts of greater than a dozen ambassadors, many past sports activities, together with actor-singer Harrdy Sandhu and actor-entrepreneur Anushka Sharma.
Puma garners about 60% of its gross sales from footwear and the remainder from attire and equipment. Final 12 months, it opened 69 new shops, taking its complete depend to 480. Amidst this, over 44% of its gross sales got here from ecommerce.
With a inhabitants of 1.4 billion, India is among the fastest-growing and largest worldwide markets for sporting firms, notably the Puma Group. The model has more and more been decreasing its dependence on imports and investing in native manufacturing — half of its merchandise at the moment are designed, developed and manufactured in India, up from lower than a 3rd three years in the past.
