Austria’s Pierer Mobility — owner of the KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas brands — has celebrated its new corporate ID with a ninth consecutive record in terms of annual revenue, profit and bike sales during 2019. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
Preliminary (pre-audit) full-year figures for the group were led by a 4% turnover improvement to £1.283bn. Operating profit grew by 2.3% to £111.2m. But operating margin declined slightly from 8.8% to 8.7%. Net profit was 12.3% up to £80.8m. Net debt climbed by 22.4% to £334.5m. Capital investment included approximately £102m in product development and £37m for plants and infrastructure.
As previously reported, global sales volume increased by 7.1% to 280,099 motorcycles. These comprised 234,449 KTM and 45,650 Husqvarna machines. The recently acquired GasGas business has yet to be integrated. For road-registered bikes, the KTM brand maintained a European share of about 12%, in an overall 125cc-plus market which expanded by 8.9%. In the US, registrations rose by 3.6%, against a market decline of 2.7%. India was a major success story, with KTM registrations surging by more than 35%. Â
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