BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Shimano has reported net sales declined 15.7 percent for the first nine months of the year. Sales in the bike segment were hardest hit, dropping 18.8 percent. A financial statement said this was due to poor weather in Europe and continued high inventories at bicycle distributors in Europe and North America.
Net sales reached ¥241.7 billion for the nine months ended September 30, compared with ¥286.8 billion in the comparable period of 2015. Operating income dropped 25.5 percent to ¥48.5 billion, and ordinary income decreased by 40.7 percent to ¥49.8 billion.
Sales at Shimano’s bicycle division dropped to ¥192.9 billion year on year, and operating income decreased 29.4 percent to ¥43.2 billion.
And, yes, Brexit gets a brief and oblique mention in the statement:
"During the first nine months of fiscal year 2016, the European economies were on a trajectory to a moderate recovery as a result of buoyant exports to regions outside the EU because of the weak euro, despite growing pessimism about the economic outlook reflecting concerns about a decline in the EU’s economic status following the referendum result in favor of Brexit."
While acknowledging poor Spring weather in Europe, Shimnao said that because of "good weather from July onward sales picked up and became brisk, leading to a remarkable progress in the adjustment of distributor inventories."
However, in North America, "retail sales of completed bicycles remained somewhat weaker than in the same period of the previous year."
