Shimano's profits slump due to "somewhat soft" cycling market

[Ross]

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/shiman ... ket/022073

In its latest finanical report Shimano said earnings fell by 46.3 percent in the first nine months of the year. This was due to a weak cycling market across the globe. There was only a slight increase in sales in its bike division, up 1.4 percent to 196 billion yen over sales in the same period last year.

Shimano's earnings of 28.1 million yen were down from 36.9 billion yen in the same period last year.

[RichB]

Is that for Shimano group total? A slump is <5%, that's more like a train wreck. Yet bicycling was up 1.4% and considered soft?

Getting the new groupsets late to oem's and delaying people's purchases of '18 bikes, maybe turning them to competitor's products, won't help them either.

[AUbicycles]

For Shimano - it is a 2.4 billion (AUD) market for the bike division for the 9 months... a lot of money.

Shimano has a complex structure and the turnover or profit can also be affected by how the company is managing their money - so rather than the total decrease in turnover being attributed to a 46.3% decrease in sales, it is more about when and how the income is being recorded. (I am speculating).

[li2099]

Drop a Di2 version into the 105 category and make it affordable(about R8000 pricing) and you'll get that %loss back
Look at Mercedes, drop some low-end affordable A-class & C-class and make them look as nice as the S-class and their profit just skyrockets.

[ValleyForge]

Look at Mercedes, drop some low-end affordable A-class & C-class ...

#notarealmercedes