BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
In the bicycle components part of Shimano’s global business, net sales were down 20.3 per cent in Q1 financial year 2016, compared with the same period last year, falling to YEN65,282million. Operating income decreased 34.4 per cent to YEN14,458 million.
Despite those results, Shimano said segment net sales for Q1 of fiscal year 2016 did achieve initial target and described sales in Europe and North America as buoyant thanks to a mild winter. Inventories in Europe were at an ‘appropriate level’, while relatively high in North America, the firm added.
China also saw inventories at a high level, with sports bicycle sales slowing in 2015. Burgeoning markets like SE Asia sales were robust, but in South America were described as lacklustre thanks to economic slowdown and weak currencies.
Taking a wider perspective, Shimano noted greater economic uncertainty generally and perhaps controversially pointed to "frequent terrorist attacks in Europe" hitting tourist numbers and "cooling of consumer sentiment", therefore affecting the economic outlook. A US decrease in manufacturing output halted, but unstable energy prices were noted as taking effect on the economy. The Japanese economy was noted to be in a lull too with concerns about "flagging momentum".
