Iwaki, Japan –
sales, operating profits
and net profits fell in the April through June quarter because of the
aftereffects of the Great Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, the yen’s appreciation,
and “increasingly intense price competition” in the North American car audio aftermarket,
the company said.
U.S. and European
sales of aftermarket navigation, however, were “positive” because of “positive
customer response to the strong cost performance of our affordable priced
navigation systems.”
The earthquake
caused difficulties in procuring parts and materials and reduced production
levels among the company’s automaker customers, Alpine noted.
Alpine’s global consolidated
OEM and aftermarket sales fell 5 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 to
46,673 million yen ($609.7 million), with operating income falling 61.6 percent
to 1,543 million yen (20.2 million) and net income falling 55.7 percent to
1,121 million yen $14.6 million).
The company, however,
upwardly revised its first-half (April through September) sales forecast to 95
billion yen ($1.24 billion) from a previously forecast 90,000 million yen
($1.18 billion), but that amount would still be below the year-ago 98,020
million ($1.28 billion). The company cited “robust” sales in Japan and
automaker customers that “appear likely to be able to recover unit production earlier
than expected.”
The company also
upwardly revised operating and net income forecasts for the period to 2,500
million yen ($32.7 million) and 2,000 million yen ($26.1 million),
respectively, compared with a previous forecast of no operating or net income.
The revised forecast would still be below the year-ago 6,993 million yen ($91.4
million) and 4,969 million yen ($64.9 million), respectively.
First-quarter
sales in OEM and aftermarket car audio fell 23.6 percent to 14.2 billion yen
($185.6 million), but sales in the Information and communications segment,
including OEM and aftermarket navigation and display products, rose 6.4 percent
to 32.3 billion yen ($422.1 million).
In its fiscal 2011
year, ended March 30, Alpine
k, posting a 19.4 percent gain in sales, an operating income gain
of 486 percent to 11.2 billion yen, and net income of 6.03 billion yen compared
with a year-ago net loss of 1.25 billion yen.
