Amer Sports reports sagging fitness, rising outdoor sales

Amer Sports said its net sales decreased 6% to €433.2 million, ($658.5mm) in the third quarter
ended Sept. 30 due to later shipments of snowsports equipment to retailers and plummeting consumer
sales of fitness equipment in North America.

The company’s outdoor brands, Salomon and Arc’teryx, however, continued to post 20% sales gains. “Amer Sports’ business developed in the third quarter according to our expectations except for the Fitness segment,” said Roger Talermo, president and CEO.

"The challenging conditions in the North American consumer market have continued to affect Precor’s consumer business more than we previously anticipated, and we have experienced major difficulties in our dealernetwork.” Companywide, AMY reported earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT, was also below last year’s level, but said its order book for the remainder of the year is higher than it was at the same time last year.

“The high season for winter sports equipment shipments to retailers started somewhat later than last year and consequently our sales in local currencies were 13% lower in the quarter compared with
last year,” said Talermo. “Thanks to clearly more pre order deliveries booked for Q4 and as a result of
already completed profitabilityimproving measures, the Winter Sports Equipment business is set to
improve its profitability substantially already this year.”