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SAKAI CITY, Japan – After its record sales year 2004 and a slight drop in 2005, Shimano’s net sales in 2006 were on par with the previous year. Total net sales reached JPY 170.303 billion. Calculated with a current exchange rate of JPY 100 = € 0.63 this would be € 1.073 billion. Compared with the previous year this is a slight 1.5% increase. While 2006 net sales were slightly up, net profit went – compared with the previous year- 15.9% down to a total of JPY 13,773 billion (€ 86.78 million). A detailed explanation for this drop was not given, but it is not unreasonable to think it may be caused by external factors, like higher raw material prices, and increasing entry-level and lower-margin product sales to China.
2006 net sales mentioned above can be divided into bicycle components (72.1%), fishing tackle (25.9%) and ‘others’ (cold-forged products for the automobile industry (2%).
These net sales can be divided geographically in America 16.5%, Asia 27.1%, Europe 39.0%, Japan 15.1%  and ‘rest of the world’ 2.3%. Means: Europe remains by far the largest market for the world’s leading bicycle component supplier. For 2007, the Japanese company expects a net sales increase of approximately 4.1% to a total of JPY 177 billion (€ 1.115 billion). 2007 net profit is forecasted a 27.8% jump up to a total of JPY 17.6 billion (€ 110.89 million). (JB)

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