Shimano’s Q1 financials post bike sales up 2.4%

Shimano has released its latest summary of financial results for the first quarter of 2019, running from 1st January to 31st March.

The manufacturing giant revealed net bicycle sales increased during Q1 by 2.4% from the same period of the previous year to 69,603 million yen, while operating income decreased by 5.6% to 13,926 million yen.

According to Shimano, retail sales of completed bicycles in Europe, particularly the sport e-bike, remained solid compared to last year, with distributor inventories of bikes in the continent remaining at an appropriate level.

Although the North American market appeared more sluggish in regards to total retail unit sales of completed bikes, the sales amount remained at the same level as in 2018 due to strong high-end bicycle sales.

China, however, still failed to see a recovery in retail sales of completed bikes, will retail sales of low-end and middle-range bikes continuing to be slow. Regarding other emerging markets, Brazil is starting to recover while the Argentine market continues to stagnate, and sales of high-end sports bikes in the Japanese market remain lethargic.

In Shimano’s financial report for fiscal year 2018, the company looked ahead to the current uncertainties plaguing the European, US and Japanese markets, and said it would be closely monitoring trends in these areas.

Shimano stated in the report that while the shift to sports-type cross bikes and e-bikes for commuting to work and school further progressed, unit sales decreased but sales unit prices increased.

The company inferred its 105 Series, one of the high-end road bike components, and Shimano Steps Sport E-bike components were well received in the market, a continuation from last year.

Shimano’s overall business operations for Q1 of this year saw net sales increased 2.9% from the same period in 2018 to 87,714 million yen. Operating income decreased 3.8% to 16,285 million yen, while ordinary income decreased 6.7% to 14,421 million yen.

There has been no change to Shimano’s forecast for this fiscal year, with net sales still expected to reach 365,000 million yen in 2019.

The financial report can be read in full here.