EsOutdoor goods manufacturer Thule announced Q3’20 revenues which climbed 44.8% year over year, in part due to a compressed buying season and increased interest in outdoor activity. This surpassed the 19.7% year over year increase predicted by analysts. Panjiva data associated with the firm showed a 20.5% year over year increase in U.S. seaborne imports in Q3, confirming Thule’s ability to capitalize on increased demand.
The firm’s CEO, Magnus Welander, emphasized the abnormal selling season and stated “not only was the season compressed, but there is also a strong underlying positive trend for biking.” while outside biking, Welander noted “some of these products normally would have been sold during the springtime.” This marks a turnaround from last year when Thule was impacted by the U.S. China trade war, as discussed in Panjiva research of October 2019.
The firm has returned to China as a source of supplies despite the trade war in order to meet soaring demand. The growth in imports from China increased by 46.3% year over year. This moved Chinese sources to 59.2% of total shipments in Q3’20 from 48.8% a year earlier. That likely reflects the faster reopening of factories in China.
Nonetheless, Thule’s operations in Europe were also able to boost imports with volumes increasing by 27.8% year over year in the same period. Meanwhile, imports from other countries, likely buoyed by the trade war in 2019, fell in 2020, decreasing by 35.6% year over year in the third quarter.
Source: Panjiva
At the product level the surge in imports came from car racks and accessories which climbed by 212.5% and 273.8% year over year respectively in Q3’20 with similar growth rates reflecting the normal concurrent purchasing of the two.
Other products did less well to total imports of bags and luggage down, though Welander stated “we’ve been able to offset some of those challenges also in supporting some major shift of staying at home, even people staying at home do need to sometimes put their products and laptops and things and go to neighborhood café and go sometimes to work”. Nonetheless, imports of bags and luggage linked to the firm still dropped by 31.0% year over year in Q3.
Source: Panjiva
