'The strong interest in bicycles cooled down as progress was made toward recovery to pre-COVID-19 routines' says Japanese brand
(Image credit: Colin Levitch)
After predicting a difficult 2023 in the midst of a record year in 2022, Shimano appears to be suffering the same difficult headwinds as the rest of the cycling industry, with double-digit falls in both sales and profits.
Shimano revealed a 17.7% fall in sales of bicycle components in the first half of 2023, compared to the first half of last year. Net sales in the brand’s bicycle division fell to ¥205 billion (around £1.1 billion), with operating profit also down by 39.5% to ¥42 billion (circa £230 million).
The brand’s fishing components performed somewhat better but shares in Shimano on the Tokyo stock market fell 3.8% on Wednesday, rebounding after dropping as much as 5.8% upon initial release of the figures.
Despite sponsoring 18 pro teams, and being clearly dominant in the road market, Shimano is struggling like the rest of the cycling industry (Image credit: Josh Croxton)
Bicycle retailer reports that the brand does stayed optimistic about its long-term future.
“Although the strong interest in bicycles cooled down as progress was made toward recovery to pre-COVID-19 day-to-day routines, interest in bicycles continued as a long-term trend," Shimano said in a statement.
While the baseline for the cycling industry as a whole may now be on a higher footing than before the pandemic, the short term bloating of the sector, along with the seemingly ever present supply issues, and subsequent contraction of demand has meant a noticeable downturn across the board.
Shimano said demand for complete bikes in Europe was “ somewhat low” and industry inventories “remained high”. They suggested the fall in demand it said it was “partly due to the impacts from unfavourable weather conditions in early spring”.
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“In the North American market, sales remained weak and market inventories were at a consistently high level,” Shimano said.
Shimano also said that production cutbacks at factories are making it “difficult” to absorb the rise in manufacturing costs.
Despite focussing on the North American markets, the difficulties are being felt in the UK just as keenly (Image credit: Josh Croxton)
Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.
