Fishing feels the pain as Shimano suffers tough start to 2024

Shimano suffered a tough start to 2024 with group sales down in the first quarter of the year by more than 20% compared with the previous year, and fishing revenue falling more than 11%.

Bicycle sales fell 20.6% as the group reported sales of 100,557 million yen. Operating income decreased by more than half to 13,421 million yen as the Japanese giant grappled with a sluggish economic recovery dragged down by tight monetary polices in countries across the world and uncertain conditions in the Ukraine and the Middle East alongside a slowdown in the economic recovery of China.

“Demand for fishing tackle that had been overly strong globally cooled down from the previous year,” Shimano told investors. “Although sales have been weak since then, adjustments to increased market inventories started to show signs of progress.”

Shimano’s domestic market has remained at a standstill due to an adjustment of market inventories with stagnant demand and lacklustre sales. Despite inventories also remaining high, sales in North America provided a bright spot with favourable sales exceeding the first quarter of the previous year.

Australia saw demand for fishing tackle increase, partially aided by stable weather conditions. “As a result, market inventories remained at an appropriate level and sales were strong,” added Shimano.

It also reported brisk sales of its new BEASTMASTER MD electric reels (pictured), the TWINPOWER spinning reels and POISON ADRENA rods.

Sales came in at 23,369m yen with operating profit decreasing 49.8% to 2,961m yen.