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Suzuki Motorcycle division put out it's mixed report this week.
Q1/'08: Sales up by 20% over Q1/'07 globally to 989,000 units sold, but profits were down 18.4% on $924.9 million compared to Q1/'07.
Q2/'08: Sales increased another 2% over Q1/'08, while net income rose 7% over Q1/'08.
What this means:
Either Suzuki shifted a lot of low-end bikes into newer markets (like China), where margins are slim, OR the falling dollar really hit it hard.
The units they did shift in the USA tended to move to lower-end, smaller, more fuel-efficient bikes instead of the high-end, high-margin RR/SS bikes.
Expect to see pretty big price-jumps on '09 models over '08 models even if the model remains effectively unchanged, to compensate for the falling value of the dollar. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 10% increase in MSRP across the board in the USA.
Suzuki is still a viable, competitive company that needs have no fear about closing down nor scaling back operations in the next several years.
NOTE: Motorcycle Tire manufacturers will also be raising prices shortly, because of increases in costs of everything from power to raw materials to transporting both the raw materials & the finished products. Now is a great time to buy your next set of tires. Example, Michelin's offerings will be going up 15% on September 1st.
Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet
Q1/'08: Sales up by 20% over Q1/'07 globally to 989,000 units sold, but profits were down 18.4% on $924.9 million compared to Q1/'07.
Q2/'08: Sales increased another 2% over Q1/'08, while net income rose 7% over Q1/'08.
What this means:
Either Suzuki shifted a lot of low-end bikes into newer markets (like China), where margins are slim, OR the falling dollar really hit it hard. The units they did shift in the USA tended to move to lower-end, smaller, more fuel-efficient bikes instead of the high-end, high-margin RR/SS bikes. Expect to see pretty big price-jumps on '09 models over '08 models even if the model remains effectively unchanged, to compensate for the falling value of the dollar. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 10% increase in MSRP across the board in the USA. Suzuki is still a viable, competitive company that needs have no fear about closing down nor scaling back operations in the next several years. NOTE: Motorcycle Tire manufacturers will also be raising prices shortly, because of increases in costs of everything from power to raw materials to transporting both the raw materials & the finished products. Now is a great time to buy your next set of tires. Example, Michelin's offerings will be going up 15% on September 1st.
Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet