Dive Brief:

• Former Hugo Boss CEO Mark Langer will join retailer Puma as its CFO and a member of its management board effective May 1, the company announced in a Thursday press release.
• Langer will succeed Markus Neubrand as finance chief, who stepped down from his role effective Thursday and will officially depart the shoe and apparel company Sept. 30, according to the press release.
• Also on Thursday, the Germany-based business reported what CEO and Chairman Arthur Hoeld called a “solid start” to a transition year in its first quarter for 2026. “We’ve made significant progress this year already in our operating model, which is necessary to build the foundation for our future growth here at PUMA,” Hoeld said Thursday during the company’s earnings call. “Despite the macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, we do remain confident on our track to achieve our plans for this year and beyond.”

Dive Insight:

Neubrand was “instrumental in terms of developing the reset program with us and also getting the company now into a transition mode for the years to come,” Hoeld said Thursday.

Hoeld, who joined the company last July, offered the departing finance chief thanks “for the support I got personally from him during my onboarding phase at PUMA, and also for guiding not just the financial team, but the organization through what was not the easiest of times for our company.”

Neubrand is leaving the business nearly two years after taking the CFO seat for the sportswear retailer in October 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile.  A fellow Hugo Boss veteran, Neubrand served in various roles during a 17-year tenure at the menswear company including as its chief operating officer and CFO, Americas for six years starting July 2014.

His tenure overlapped with that of Langer, who also spent 17 years at Hugo Boss. Langer’s experience included a seven-year tenure as its CFO and four years as its CEO and board chairman, according to his LinkedIn profile. Most recently, he served as CFO for the Douglas Group, a German cosmetics and perfume company.

The athleticwear company will lean on Langer’s financial chops as it continues to move forward with the turnaround plan Puma moved to put in place last year. As well as changes to its leadership team — bringing in Hoeld, an Adidas veteran, as CEO and appointing a new chief commercial officer — the company last year also implemented cost saving initiatives and cut approximately 500 corporate jobs globally, according to company releases.

Reporting its full-year 2025 results in February, Puma designated its coming 2026 as a transition year and outlined its strategic priorities with the aim of rightsizing its inventory, bolstering growth and regaining investor confidence.

Puma is continuing to target cost efficiencies, including layoffs — identifying an additional 900 positions it is looking to reduce by the end of 2025, Hoeld said during the earnings call. Of those, 450 employees have already left the company as of the end of its first quarter.

For its Q1, though logging a minor sales dip, Puma reported adjusted-EBIT of 51.9 million euros ($60 million) for its first quarter, a jump of 19.6% year-over-year, according to its earnings report. Its gross profit margin, meanwhile, increased by 60 basis points to 47.7%, and the company also reported lower operating expenses.

Neubrand attributed the 1% YoY sales decrease for the quarter largely to Puma’s reset efforts, which includes lower promotions for both its stores and e-commerce website, he said Thursday. Meanwhile, Puma’s continued efforts to rightsize inventory levels was one of the significant drivers in improving the company’s profit margin, he said.

Though touting the positive momentum for its turnaround efforts, Neubrand also pointed to continued “geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties” the business is taking into account as it issues guidance for the remainder of the year. The Iran war and U.S. tariffs are expected to have a negative impact on sales and margin as well as consumer sentiment, he said in response to an analyst question.

“There are still a lot of moving parts for the [remainder] of the year, including, of course, the top line development as just outlined, but as well also the level of one-time costs, as we will make sure to set the right foundation in 2026 to return to growth in 2027,” he said.