Puma have announced the huge news(Image: Bruntwood SciTech)

A major sport and fashion brand is moving its UK headquarters from London to Manchester, it’s been confirmed.

International sportswear giant Puma is set to make the move north after signing a lease for a new office block on Oxford Road in the city centre. It will occupy No 3 Circle Square, an £87m development recently confirmed as the new home for online car marketplace Auto Trader.

Puma will be well-known to the blue half of the city, as the company has manufactured Manchester City’s kits since 2019, producing the sky blue shirt Pep Guardiola’s team won their iconic 2023 treble in.

Its arrival is the latest Manc fashion success story. The city hosted Chanel’s Metiers d’Art show in December 2023, with up-and-coming sportswear label Adanola also moving its head office to NOMA in 2024.

Council leader Bev Craig welcomed the move, saying it ‘illustrates Manchester’s international impact’.

She added: “Manchester is a city of innovation and a city of style and we’re pleased that Puma has decided our existing ecosystem — the talent pool available and links with like-minded businesses and institutions — make it the perfect fit for them.

“We look forward to welcoming Puma to Circle Square and seeing what interesting new opportunities their presence here will open up both for them and for Manchester people.”

Executives at the German company, founded in 1948 by Rudolf Dassler whose brother Adi formed Adidas, said they made the decision to relocate because of the city’s ‘creative talent’ and established academic prowess in the fashion industry.

City have worn Puma since 2019(Image: AP)

Lucynda Davies, UK managing director at Puma, said: “Being surrounded by such a strong line up of industry was an important factor, and to find somewhere in the heart of Manchester’s thriving tech community is exactly what we hoped for.

“Being based at Circle Square will also open up a host of opportunities to tap into the city’s creative talent pool and strengthen our existing links with academic partners like Manchester Metropolitan University – of which we get the added benefit of Bruntwood SciTech being a partner.”

Puma will move its sales, marketing, merchandising, finance, people & operations and direct to consumer departments to Manchester.

(Image: Bruntwood SciTech)

Staff will enjoy the building’s shared roof terrace with expansive views across the city from No 3 Circle Square, part of a wider £243m programme of office redevelopment across Manchester from Bruntwood SciTech.

Alongside Circle Square, the company’s spending big on the Sister project, which includes renovating former university buildings between Oxford Road and Piccadilly station.

Its investment comes at a time when some fear Manchester may run out of new office developments in 2027, something Andy Burnham said was ‘quite sobering’ in December.

One expert explained how that can become ‘a barrier for how we grow the city’.

“If you haven’t got those new buildings for [major international firms], it’s not to say absolutely they wouldn’t come to Manchester, but it obviously changes the nature of the ‘sell story’ you’ve got for them, because now you’re not taking them to a brand new address,” Colin Thomasson, executive director of commercial real estate giants CBRE, said in January.