Puma continues to make changes to its team with two new hires this week.
On Wednesday, the German athletic company named Bertrand Blanc as its new vice president of global wholesale. He will start in this newly created position on May 1 and report directly to chief commercial officer Matthias Baeumer.
Bertrand joins Puma from a nine-year stint at Wilson Sporting Goods, where he most recently served as senior global commercial director. Prior to Wilson, he held senior roles in strategy, key account management, planning and operations at both Asics and Nike.
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According to the company, Bertrand will be “tasked with developing and executing the company’s sales strategies, driving its global revenue growth agenda and ensuring the Puma brand is elevated at major wholesale accounts around the world.”
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“Our wholesale business is a crucial part of our commercial engine and by appointing a dedicated leader for this channel, we can create a global center of excellence which will support our global markets,” Baeumer said in a statement. “I’m convinced that Bertrand is the right person to lead our teams to grow Puma at strategic wholesalers both globally and in major markets.”
And on Monday, Puma named Laurent Fricker as the new vice president of the sportstyle business unit, starting June 1. He will report directly to Maria Valdes, chief brand officer at Puma.
Prior to Puma, Fricker has held several leadership positions in product marketing and sales at Adidas and Reebok for more than two decades. Most recently, he worked as vice president of Originals, Basketball and Partnerships Europe at Adidas, where he was responsible for introducing and expanding a number of successful product franchises.
“Laurent is a focused leader with a clear track record of connecting sport authenticity with on-trend credibility and strong cross-functional execution,” said Valdes. “With his deep understanding of consumer culture, product storytelling, and go-to-market expertise, I am confident that he will further strengthen the sportstyle business unit and accelerate its contribution to Puma’s growth.”
Fricker added that heading the sportstyle unit is a “fantastic” opportunity. “We have the clear potential to further sharpen our product offering and create products that become culturally relevant to our consumers,” Fricker said.
The news comes one week after Puma hired footwear industry veteran James Carnes as its new senior vice president of creative direction. In this newly created role, Carnes will work to align creative direction with the company’s overall strategic ambitions, set the seasonal direction for the business units and create a long-term look and feel for the brand across consumer touch points, Puma noted.
All of these moves come as the brand looks to refuel excitement across the business. In February, the company logged a Q4 sales drop of 20.1 percent, currency adjusted, to 1.56 billion euros.
The brand’s annual sales fell 8.1 percent in currency adjusted terms to 7.29 billion euros, down from 8.39 billion euros in 2024, but slightly better than market consensus.
In January, Anta Sports Products Limited inked an agreement with Groupe Artémis, the investment company of the Pinault family, to acquire a 29.06 percent stake in Puma SE in a deal worth 1.5 billion euros, or about $1.8 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026.