Cooped up consumers flocked to showroom floors during the COVID-19 health crisis. Ironically, many manufacturers struggled to meet that demand due to pandemic-induced supply chain shortages. Those supply woes haven’t relented as authorities continue to relax COVID health restrictions worldwide. Still facing supply chain challenges and inflationary threats, Polaris posted discouraging sales figures in Q1 2022.
As a whole, Polaris experienced a 22-percent dip in retail sales versus the same period last year, which saw the company amass a 70-percent sales increase over Q1 2020. Polaris pulled in $70 million in the first three months of 2022, but that’s a 48-percent freefall in revenue.
“Sales for this quarter remained relatively flat to last year, depressed by continued supply chain pressures,” claimed Polaris CEO Mike Speetzen. “While much of our focus centers on navigating the highly volatile and challenging supply chain environment, demand for our industry-leading products and services remains healthy, as we continued to see high levels of pre-sold orders and low cancellations, strong short- and long-term repurchase rates, and record levels of PG&A attachments.”
The firm’s off-road arm benefitted from increased interest in snowmobiles and commercial vehicles, but those gains were offset by Polaris North America ORV’s 15-percent sales loss. The on-road segment suffered the most, however, with supply chain issues and record low dealer inventory levels working against the brand. As a result, Indian Motorcycle sales fell by 30 percent, but parts, garments, and accessories (PG&A) performance rose by 19 percent.
Armed with the data, Polaris hopes to institute new measures to help the brand and its subsidiaries weather the storm.
“We are making strategic investments in both innovation and operations to enable our long-term growth plans and productivity needs and strengthen our position as the global leader in powersports,” added Speetzen. “The Polaris team remains laser-focused on executing against our plans for this year and delivering for our customers, dealers, and shareholders.”
