Vista Outdoor business sales down 20%
In the most recent quarter, Vista Outdoor's Outdoor Products business unit, which includes the Bell, Giro, Fox Racing, Blackburn, QuietKat and CamelBak brands, saw an 8% increase in sales. Much of the growth, however, was due to acquisitions made since last year (including Fox Racing). If you remove this new business, then sales in the other divisions were down 20%, which the company attributed to "high channel inventory."
The company said it expects to "spin off" its Outdoor Products business unit into a separate publicly traded company in the fourth quarter of this year, the exact name of which has yet to be determined.
Gross profit in the outdoor products business rose 3 percent to $95 million, an increase the company said was "driven by acquisitions, partially offset by a reduction in previously held brands."
Andy Keegan, Vista Outdoor's vice president and interim chief financial officer, said, "The Outdoor Products business unit's results were in line with expectations, and our previously announced cost reduction and earnings improvement programs are beginning to pay off. These impacts are translating into positive results.
Shimano Bicycle Products Sales Down 18% in First Half of 2023
For the first half of 2023, as of June 30, Shimano reported net sales of 204,986 million yen ($1.45 billion) in its bicycle-related business. Operating income for the division decreased by 39.5% to ¥42,093 million. On a quarterly basis, the Bicycle segment's sales for the second quarter were down 18.6% from the same period last year, and the segment's operating income was down 7.5%.
Shimano said: Although the strong interest in bicycles has cooled as people gradually return to their daily lives before the epidemic, interest in bicycles continues as a long-term trend. On the other hand, recessionary concerns, including rapidly rising inflation, have led to a slowdown in whole bike sales, and market inventories are generally high despite ongoing adjustments in supply and demand. In North America, sales remained weak and market inventories continued to be high.
Sales were "slightly weaker" in most of Asia and in South and Central America, but strong in China, especially for road bikes, the company said. The depreciation of the yen has slowed sales of Japanese bikes. High inventory levels in Japan also contributed to poor sales.
Shimano cut its full-year sales forecast by 2.2% to 450,000 million yen from 460,000 million yen previously. This would be a 40% reduction from the 2022 full-year sales of ¥628,909 million.
