MIPS, a Swedish supplier of helmet-based safety technologies intended to protect wearers against rotational movements, saw good growth in the fourth quarter, with sales rocketing by 41 percent from the year-ago quarter to 88 million Swedish krona (€8.3m-$9.0m). Adjusted for currency effects and acquisitions, and on an organic basis, they improved by 33 percent. The gross margin remained flat at 74.9 percent, while the adjusted operating margin declined by 0.7 percentage points to 45.4 percent.
The momentum is expected to continue following the appointment in October of a new chief marketing officer, Fredrik Kjellberg, who joined a team of less than 40 employees involved in R&D, marketing, sales and administration. He had previously spent nearly five years as brand marketing manager and global marketing manager of Haglöfs and nearly four years as global marketing director of Atomic, the Austrian-based ski producer. Before joining Haglöfs, he had been the digital marketing manager of Peak Performance.
In the full 2019 financial year, the company’s sales rose by 39 percent to SEK 267.9 million (€25.3m-$27.3m), or by 29 percent on an organic basis. The gross margin expanded by 0.2 percentage points to 74.1 percent. Adjusted for acquisitions, the margin gained 1.4 percentage points, reaching a level of 75.3 percent. In 2019, MIPS acquired GlideWear from Tamarack Habilitation Technologies of Blaine, Minnesota. The deal was worth about $1 million.
MIPS’ adjusted operating margin jumped by 3.3 percentage points to 41.2 percent due to the sharply higher sales and the positive impact of currency fluctuations, partly offset by higher costs for a strengthening of the organization, currency derivatives and increased marketing initiatives. The company’s net income climbed by 50 percent to SEK 84.8 million (€8.0m-$8.6m).
The management said the group doubled its sales to European customers during the year. In 2019, the company delivered 4.9 million units with MIPS BPS technology to 103 brands all over the world for integration into 583 different helmet models. This compares with 3.8 million units delivered in 2018. Specialized and Nutcase, a lifestyle-oriented brand of helmets, were among the 25 new partners of MIPS last year.
MIPS entered into both the safety helmet and hockey helmet categories in the past year. Bollé is the company’s latest major new partner. It is also the first brand of sports eyewear to offer MIPS BPS in all helmets both for snow sports and cycling.
