By Dean AdamsSuzuki’s most recent annual report is here:
https://www.globalsuzuki.com/ir/library/annualreport/
Some interesting notes from their most recent annual report:
While nearly all of Suzuki’s competition were sold out of motorcycles and side-by-sides during the COVID period and faced unprecedented demand for product, Suzuki actually sold less product than the year before. Motorcycle sales were down 15%.
Suzuki’s new “Mid-term Management Plan” does not even mention motorcycles.
Motorcycle sales represent just six percent of over-all sales at Suzuki. They sold 153,000 motorcycles globally. Conversely, Kawasaki sells over 400,000 units and Honda sells 10 million motorcycles, again annually.
Suzuki sales 2010-2019 dropped 36%. Then sales fell another 10% in fiscal 2020.
Suzuki seems intent on electrifying their scooter and car business. That is where the vast sums they were spending in order to race MotoGP will presumably end up after they are re-routed.
The elephant in the Suzuki board room is this: Suzuki completely missed the entire side-by-side market. Side by side sales are an enormous revenue generator for Yamaha, Polaris, Kawasaki and Honda. In doing so Suzuki ignored the most profitable and fastest growing part of the powersports market. Kawasaki is building new side-by-side production plants because the market is huge and very profitable. Suzuki’s “King Quad” ATV is basically the same machine that the other manufacturers offered in the early 2000s. Suzuki does not produce any kind of side by side at all.
While KTM and Ducati have shown that a motorcycle manufacturer can be successful without a side by side line, a key difference between KTM and Ducati versus Suzuki is that both KTM and Ducati are pushing with new bikes, new technology and very up to date production methods, whereas Suzuki isn’t. Suzuki’s 2022 GSX-S1000GT “Grand Touring” bike has an engine that has been in the Suzuki line-up since 2005.
