Shimano's European group of companies has responded to a disappointing 2017 by merging three separate business units into a single operation. At the same time, the company decided to add fresh blood to the European executive board in the form of two new members.
The reorganization is aimed at consolidating and rationalizing operations. Shimano Europe B.V., Shimano Europe Fishing Holding B.V. and bikefitting.com B.V. have been merged into Shimano Europe Holding B.V., which has been renamed Shimano Europe B.V. As part of the move, Shimano Europe will become responsible for the marketing and sales of Shimano's retail-oriented and OEM business to all market channels and business partners.
The new setup will see the sales department divided into three sections: product management (bike components and retail), OEM sales, retail sales and an additional backup team. The marketing department will have two sections: one for promotions and production for all products and brands, and one for sports, event marketing and PR.
Coinciding with these changes, Taizo Shimano and Hiroshi Matsui have joined the European board. The former will serve as executive vice president in charge of the fishing tackle division and as chief marketing officer for the bicycle components division. He joined the company in 1991, first starting in bicycle and fishing positions overseas before progressing to management roles in the fishing division.
Matsui joined Shimano in 2011 as vice president of corporate administration, and progressed to director of the general operations division. He is now senior vice president of Shimano Europe responsible for business administration and general operations. The two new members of the executive board join Marc van Rooij and Satoshi Yuasa. Yoshihiro Hirata, head of general operations, will be stepping down from the board.
As part of the changes, a newly formed executive committee will lead the company's daily operations. Frank Peiffer has joined the committee as vice president in charge of the bike division of the group, while Arjen Vinke has been appointed managing director of Shimano's European sales offices.
In other moves, Thom van Egmond has joined the executive committee as chief finance officer. He comes from Unilever where he spent 16 years in Italy, Morocco and Singapore in senior functions in finance, supply chain and change management. Management changes will also take place at Rapala Shimano Eastern Europe, the Japanese company's joint venture with Rapala VMC for certain fishing tackle markets, with Taizo Shimano becoming a board member of the company, replacing Satoshi Yuasa, who is resigning.
As previously reported (SGI Europe Vol. 28 N° 32+33 of Oct. 31, 2017), Shimano saw its net income for the first nine months of 2017 tumble by 23.7 percent against the same period in 2016 to 28,104 million yen (€144.1m-$167.8m), although sales inched up by 1.8 percent to ¥245,969 million (€1.9bn-$2.2bn). The Japanese manufacturer blamed the dip in profitability on a weak cycling market across the globe.
As for Europe, the company said the overall market had slowed down, reflecting increases in distributor inventories in the U.K. and Germany and the impact of an extremely hot summer in Italy. The company anticipates a growth trajectory in Europe in 2018 following improvements in employment levels and strengthening consumer spending.
