By Emma Thomasson
BERLIN (Reuters) - German sportswear company Puma cut its profit outlook for 2015 on Wednesday after the strong U.S. dollar hit its first-quarter earnings, overshadowing strong footwear sales following the launch of a new running shoe by Usain Bolt.
Puma, which brought forward its quarterly results from Friday ahead of its annual general meeting later on Wednesday, said first-quarter net profit fell 30 percent to 24.8 million euros (18 million pounds) on sales up 13 percent to 821.4 million.
Puma shares traded 4.2 percent lower at 0825 GMT, compared with a flat German small-cap index.
The sportswear industry sources the vast majority of products from Asia in U.S. dollar contracts, while Puma makes a large chunk of its sales in currencies that have fallen against the greenback, squeezing margins.
Chief Executive Bjorn Gulden said Puma was having to cut its outlook as measures to counter currency hit like raising prices and increasing local sourcing were taking longer than they originally expected.
Puma had already warned in February that it expected the strong dollar and other currency fluctuations to weigh on earnings, promising to take steps including price increases to blunt this impact.
Majority-owned by French luxury goods group Kering (PARIS:PRTP), Puma is a distant third in the sportswear market behind Nike (NYSE:NKE) and Germany's Adidas (XETRA:ADSGN).
Puma has been spending heavily on marketing and sponsorship, including ousting Nike as kit supplier to English Premier League soccer club Arsenal, as it tries to restore its reputation as a sports performance brand after it strayed too far into fashion.
It launched a new springy-soled running shoe dubbed IGNITE with Olympic sprint champion Bolt at a glitzy event in New York's Times Square in February, which it said helped drive a 7.8 percent currency-adjusted rise in footwear sales.
However, its gross profit margin fell to 46.9 percent from 48.5 percent a year ago, due to the rise of the dollar against the Russian rouble, Turkish lira and major Latin American currencies that it did not, or could not, hedge against.
Puma now expects its 2015 gross profit margin to fall 100 to 150 basis points from 46.6 percent last year, compared with previous guidance for a slight increase.
It expects operating earnings to fall to between 80 million and 100 million euros from 128 million in 2014.
