OSAKA, Japan (BRAIN) — Shimano saw a steep decline in sales and profits in its bike segment in the first half, pointing to bad weather, the Brexit vote, terrorist attacks in Europe, and high distributor bicycle inventory in North America as contributors.
The component giant saw a 18.6 percent decline in bike-related sales in the half, and a 28.5 percent decline in operating income. The bike segment contributed 132 billion yen ($1.26 billion) to the company's total sales of 166 billion yen in the half. Its other major segment, fishing, saw a slight increase in sales, 0.6 percent, to 33 billion yen. Fishing operating income was up 37 percent.
Despite the issues in Europe and North America, and stagnant Chinese and Japanese markets, Shimano met its initial targets for the half. Total sales were down 15 percent from the first half 2015 total of 197 billion yen.
However, Shimano revised down its forecast for the rest of the year. The company had earlier forecast sales for the full fiscal year at 350 billion yen. It has revised it down 7.1 percent to 325 billion yen. Operating income forecast was lowered 15 percent, from 80 billion yen to 60 billion yen.
The company saw a 20 percent decline in bike segment sales in the first quarter this year.
