Sumitomo Rubber Industries reported an operating profit of 4.4 billion yen (€33.4m-$41.4m) in 2017 for its sports segment, which includes the distribution of Babolat in Japan plus the global operations of Dunlop, Srixon, Cleveland Golf and XXIO. The segment's sales rose by 12 percent last year to ¥81.7 million (€0.62m-$0.77m), with particularly solid growth in Europe, the U.S. and South Korea. Fourth-quarter sales jumped by 24 percent to ¥23.0 billion (€174.4m-$216.2m), evidently lifted by the integration of Dunlop International's businesses in Japan and Korea. As a group involved also in tires and other operations, Sumitomo Rubber saw its net profit rise to ¥47.0 billion last year on 16 percent higher total revenues of ¥877.9 billion (€6.7bn-$8.3bn). Sumitomo predicts that its sports segment will record a slightly lower profit of ¥4.0 billion (€30.3m-$37.6m) on 4 percent higher sales revenues of ¥85.0 billion (€644.7m-$799.2m).

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