Maersk has begun operating 2.3 million square feet of automated PUMA warehousing across California, Arizona and Indiana, taking direct management of a three-site distribution network the sportswear brand previously ran in-house.

The footprint breaks down to approximately 672,000 sq ft in Torrance, California, 1.02 million sq ft in Phoenix, Arizona, and 636,000 sq ft in Whitestown, Indiana. All three facilities service PUMA's retail stores, wholesale customers and e-commerce orders, and each runs AutoStore automated storage and retrieval technology, where robots pull inventory from a compact grid for human pickers — a setup that compresses travel time and lifts order-processing speed.

What the announcement does not say

Maersk disclosed no contract value, term length, minimum throughput or staffing transfer figures. The carrier also declined to publish AutoStore install dates, capital costs at each site, or per-unit economic splits. Reading this as a clean asset transfer overstates what the parties confirmed; the materials describe an "expanded partnership," not a divestment by PUMA. Until capacity guarantees and exit clauses surface, shippers should treat the move as an operational consolidation, not a balance-sheet event.

The quotes on the record

Dave Hune, Maersk North America Head of Contract Logistics, framed the integration around flexibility: "Together with PUMA, we're creating a more flexible and scalable fulfilment network that helps keep products moving quickly to stores and consumers."

PUMA's side emphasised investment recovery. Helmut Leibbrand, SVP Supply Chain Management and Logistics Americas, said the arrangement "strengthens our ability to move products more efficiently across channels, improve responsiveness to changing demand and create greater value from the investments we've made in our US distribution infrastructure."

Why 2027 matters at Torrance

From 2027, Maersk will open the Torrance facility to third-party brands needing automated fulfilment near the LA/Long Beach port complex and LAX — Maersk North America's first multi-client AutoStore deployment. The site carries a stated annual capacity of approximately 20 million units.

That pivot serves two commercial purposes. It monetises the AutoStore density PUMA's seasonal demand cannot fully consume year-round, and it repositions Maersk against GXO, DHL Supply Chain and XPO in the Western-US multi-tenant automated-fulfilment segment, where dedicated AutoStore slots remain scarce.

What it changes for shippers and forwarders

For PUMA, fixed warehousing becomes a per-unit variable — a structure that scales down in slow quarters and up at peak. For prospective Maersk customers, the multi-client model offers AutoStore throughput without standalone capex, but it also concentrates Maersk's grip on a brand's DC operations alongside its ocean, air, inland and customs stack — vertical integration that the integrator-cum-carrier argues is resilience but rivals read as lock-in.

The caveat

AutoStore density figures will stay aspirational until benchmarks arrive. "Approximately 20 million units annually" is a design parameter, not a contracted volume, and none of the parties have published pick rates, baseline utilisation or service-level guarantees.

The next data point will be Maersk's first third-party customer signing at Torrance — likely in 2026, ahead of the 2027 launch — which will reveal whether the multi-client economics clear a financial bar the carrier has yet to put in writing.