Amer Sports Corp – the owner of brands such as Mavic, Salomon and Suunto – issued its full year sales results yesterday with a record year and full-year net sales up by 9% on a local currency basis. Net sales reached €1,881 million for fiscal 2011, compared to €1,740 million in the previous financial year. This was alongside gains in the company’s EBIT (Earnings Before Interest & Tax) margin, which was up by 1.0 percentage point.
The late arrival of winter impacted the company’s Winter and Outdoor business units in fiscal Q4. Although, Apparel and Footwear category pre-orders for spring/summer 2012 are reportedly up by 28% and 14%, respectively. Overall, Amer Sports’ 2012 net sales in local currencies are expected to increase on 2011.
Heikki Takala, President and CEO, said “2011 was a record year for Amer Sports. The company reached [an] all-time high in sales and EBIT with net sales up by 9% and EBIT by 26%. Almost all of our business units and geographic regions are improving and we can see that the strategy announced in 2010 is proving to work.
“I continue to be especially pleased by the progress in softgoods, which in 2011 became our largest category, representing nearly 30% of the company sales. Equally, I’m delighted by the strong development in Fitness, up by 17%, in Cycling, up by 14%, and in Team Sports, up by 11%.”
Takala added, “Looking into 2012, we continue to drive our strategy. We do see some new challenges: the Winter Sports Equipment market will be challenging due to the slow start of the season in key markets. Further, the economic environment remains cloudy. Despite these challenges, we will have strong performance and we will continue driving our development programs with focus on profitable growth and synergies.”
