Shimano bike sales on the rise

Shimano’s bike component net sales increased by 2.2 per cent over the first three quarters of the 2018 financial year, it has reported.

The company released a summary of financial results reporting retail sales of completed bikes and distributor inventories.

In Europe, with stable weather continuing through the summer season, sales of completed bikes, mainly sport e-bikes, “stayed robust and distributor inventories of bikes remained at a slightly lower level, though they were in an appropriate range”.

In the US, sales were on par with an average year, and distributor inventories also remained at an “appropriate level”.

In China, sales remained “feeble”, with the figures for low-end and mid-range bikes described by the company as “sluggish”.

With regard to the other emerging markets, Southeast Asia as a whole “lacked vigor” although sales showed signs of a gradual recovery in Indonesia.

In South America, consumption showed signs of slowdown, “due to the effects of continuing currency depreciation and political instability in Brazil and Argentina”.

In the Japanese market, although sales of sports bikes and community bikes also remained “sluggish”, sales of e-bikes as a whole increased and sport e-bikes gained more attention.