Mips sees sales down 35% in Q1’s soft bike market

Sales dipped 35% to SEK 88m (137m) in Q1 (Jan-March 2023) for safety tech business Mips, while organic growth declined -41% during the quarter.

Operating profit amounted to SEK 15m (62m) – down 75% – in an expected “soft bike market”. But the good news is that there is an expectation of an improving situation in Q2 – though that too will be “relatively soft”.

Mips referenced higher inventory levels for bike resellers in key US and European markets, and a slightly later season start due to cooler weather.

Max Strandwitz, President and CEO, said: “The cautious start to the bike season has meant that our customers, the helmet manufacturers, have been restrictive with new orders. Despite a favourable product mix with a larger share of sales to other categories that continue to grow, the second quarter will also be relatively soft.

“We continued to see a challenging development within bike during the first quarter. From a sales point of view, the first quarter is seasonally slower within bike. Last year we saw a slight delay in the production of helmets that there had not been time to manufacture in the fourth quarter of 2021 and were instead produced in the first quarter of last year. Within snow we have had a very strong winter season, mainly in the north American market. Due to the strong season within snow, our assessment is that there will continue to be good growth in these types of helmets coming quarters.

“From the latest measurements we can see that awareness of Mips is growing among consumers around the world and that the associations with the brand is even more positive. In other words, we are strongly equipped to face the recovery and growth in the market that we are convinced is coming. Given all of this, I look forward to continuing to make progress towards our long-term goals.”

Staff numbers were up in the quarter, at 98 (80), 24 (22) of which were part of the Chinese subsidiary. At the end of the period, the overall number of employees reached 102, with a relatively well balanced gender balance (55 men and 47 women).

Limar Helmets USA recently launched three helmets at Sea Otter Classic using MIPS technology while earlier in the year Giro unveiled its new Aries Spherical helmet, powered by MIPS.