For the third quarter, Asics reported in its financial highlights a net profit of 6,723 million yen (€51.3m-$59.3m), up sharply from ¥2,858 million a year earlier. However, sales increased by only 11.2 percent to ¥112.7 billion yen (€860m-$990m) from 101.3 billion as compared to the same period of 2020, and they were 14 percent higher than two years earlier.
The gross margin rose by 4.6 percentage points to 49.5 percent and the operating margin improved to 10.5 percent from 7.1 percent in the year-ago period.
As reported last Friday, Asics reported a higher growth rate of 29.8 percent for the nine-month period from January to September, reaching ¥322,207 million (€2.4bn-$2.8bn), reflecting 36 percent growth in North America and a 33 percent increase in both Europe and Greater China.
The company did not specify the regional results for the third quarter alone, but calculations show that revenues were up year-on-year by 13 percent in Japan, by 16 percent in North America, by 6 percent in Europe, by 5 percent in Greater China and by 21 percent in the rest of the world.
Performance Running remained the fastest-growing category in all the geographies, up by 6 percent from a year ago, while tennis and other Performance Sports were up by 8 percent.
