Yamaha Reports Q3 2015 Results

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

Yamaha reported a 6.5% increase in motorcycle sales revenue thanks to a strong shift towards higher-priced models in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2015.

Overall, Yamaha sold 3.89 million motorcycles in the third quarter, down from 4.39 million in the same quarter last year, which on the surface, doesn’t sound like good news. Look deeper and you’ll realize the decrease came primarily in lower-priced motorcycles and scooters in emerging markets. Meanwhile in more developed markets, Yamaha sold 20,000 more models at higher price points. North American sales were particularly strong with Yamaha reporting sales of 68,000 motorcycles compared to 56,000 in the same quarter of 2014. In particular, Yamaha singled out strong demand for the new YZF-R1 and the FJ-09 (a.k.a. the MT-09 Tracer in Europe).

As a result, Yamaha motorcycle division saw net sales increase by 47.4 billion yen to a total of 771.3 billion yen (US$6.26 billion) for the third quarter. Developed markets saw a 21.5% increase in net sales, growing to 210.6 billion yen from 173.3 billion yen in 2014. The sales growth translated to an operating income of 2.3 billion yen from developed markets, compared to operating losses of 10.3 billion reported in the third quarter of 2014 and 19.5 billion in 2013.

Despite selling a half million fewer motorcycles in emerging markets, Yamaha reported a 10.0 billion yen increase in net sales from those regions. This shows that even in emerging markets, customers are gravitating more towards higher-priced models.

[Source: Yamaha]

Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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