March 12, 2007 – Ducati aims to return to profit in ’07

Although Ducati Motor Holding SpA reported decreased net sales and a loss for its fiscal year, company officials say 2006 ended up better than they expected.
Plus, Ducati officials are predicting sales will increase by double digits in 2007, allowing the Italian company to return to profit.
“I am extremely satisfied with the results brought by Ducati’s relaunch plan, which is living up to our expectations and is producing results earlier than we anticipated,” Ducati CEO Federico Minoli said in a prepared statement.
“In particular the decrease of dealer inventory is a good preparation for the sale of new products in 2007. The new Superbike 1098, Hypermotard and Desmosedici are creating high expectations in the market and a significant number of orders.”
For 2006, Ducati sold about 32,300 bikes — a 6.4 percent decrease from the previous year. As a result, its net revenue of Euro 304.8 million ($401 million) was down 1.2 percent. Partially offsetting the loss of new bike revenue was a 3.4 percent increase in parts and accessory sales, which reached Euro 60.1 million ($79 million).
Although Ducati’s new model year sales were down, its overall registrations were up, meaning the company’s dealers were able to reduce their in-house stock by about 3,000 bikes, which equates to about a month of inventory.
The company’s net result for 2006 was a loss of Euro 8.5 million ($11.1 million), which is a significant improvement over last year’s loss of Euro 41.4 million ($54.6 million).
Registrations increased in the United States by more than 16 percent and slightly in France (1.5 percent), but were down in the United Kingdom (16.5 percent) and Italy (3.9 percent). psb