Shimano’s net sales for the three quarters of 2018 stands at JPY 253,923 million (1,982 million euro). The company’s operating income is up 2.7% to JPY 47,816 million (373 million euro).
Bicycle Components
Next to robust sales, of sports e-bikes (better said: e-MTBs) in particular, Shimano reports on its European operations “Distributor inventories of bicycles remained at a slightly lower level, though they were in an appropriate range.”
For North America the company reports on flat retail bike sales with appropriate inventories. In China bike sales remain weak with in particular slow sales of low to mid-end prices bicycles. But the company notes that “Bike sharing is facing a period of realignment and the number of products supplied to the market has stabilized, thereby distributor inventories remained at an appropriate level.”
Emerging markets
With regard to the other emerging markets, Shimao says that “Southeast Asia as a whole lacked vigor although retail sales of completed bicycles 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. Distributor inventories were at an appropriate level both in Southeast Asia and South America. In the Japanese market, although retail sales of sports bicycles and community bicycles remained sluggish owing partly to the unseasonable weather conditions persisting since the beginning of the year, e-bikes sales as a whole increased, and particularly, sport e-bikes has gained more attention.”
