The Can Am Defender Max and the Defender line as a whole helped drive sales.
The Maverick X3 X RS Turbo R and other X# models have helped drive sales as well.
BRP reported third quarter earnings for fiscal year 2018 of $1,241million ($C), a 15% increase from last year. Sales were driven by their Year-Round Products division which includes side-by-sides and Seasonal Products division which includes snowmobiles. For the quarter, Year-Round Products revenue increased $77 million or 20.1% to $460.9 million mainly on higher volume of Maverick X3 and the newly launched Maverick Trail.
The following are highlights of the earnings call related to the side-by-side market.
- Side-by-side retail increased low 30% compared to an industry up high single digits
- Launched the new 50″ wide Maverick Trail marking entry into the trail segment
- Announced investment to increase their manufacturing capabilities in Mexico in response to ongoing strong demand for Defender and X3 models
- North America side-by-side industry up low teen percent for the first third of the model year
- Can-Am’s international side-by-side retail sales were up 80% for the quarter and the Defender and Maverick MAX models grew over 100% in markets like Mexico, China and Europe
- The management stated that they did not follow some of their competitors who were aggressive with promotions in the quarter
- The Defender line continues to make inroads into the farm and rural markets
- Commander sales are flat to low single digit growth and the company has lost market share in that segment but gained share in the overall market
- The management believes that better and more feature rich products across the industry are helping to drive replacement of older vehicles
Learn more: Finance.yahoo.com (Earnings call transcript)
This marks another strong quarter for BRP as they continue to gain market share in the side-by-side market. Management expects to continue to follow their plan of adding new models every six months until 2020. The overall market appears to remain steady and strong with solid growth.
Marc Cesare, Smallvehicleresource.com