Shimano sales up 4.1% in first half of 2019 while operating income is down

Shimano has released its latest financial report for the first half of this year, seeing net sales of bicycle components increase by 4.1% to 143,599 million yen.

The company also reported operating income was down 3% during the period to 28,613 million yen.

Shimano cited good weather conditions in Europe in supporting ‘favourable’ retail sales of completed bikes, the majority of these being sport e-bikes.

The North American market remained stable for Shimano over the time period with sales remaining at the same level as in 2018, despite a sluggish start to this year for complete bike sales in the segment.

Meanwhile, bike sales in China continued to ‘lack vigour’ according to the company, and the Argentine market remained ‘stagnant’ due to the effects of currency depreciation, although the Brazilian segment showed signs of recovery.

Despite good weather conditions, sales of high-end sports bikes were sluggish in the Japanese market as the company identified a shift towards sports-type cross bikes and commuter e-bikes which saw unit sales decrease but sales unit prices increase.

Under these market conditions, disc brake components for high-end road bikes and the Shimano Steps sport e-bike components continued to be well-received in the market.

As a result of the latest report, Shimano has altered its full-year forecast for 2019, predicting a -0.8% change in total net sales to 362,000 million yen (previously 365,000 million yen) and operating income down to 67,000 million yen from 73,000 million yen.

The company attributed these changes to expected increases in expenses for its new product launch and costs to increase the production of products receiving favourable orders and improve the manufacturing process.

The predictions also reflect the decrease in non-operating expenses during the first half of the year due to a depreciation in Asian currencies.