Suzuki's North American sales jump

Suzuki’s North American bike sales are up – way up.

Suzuki’s North American sales haven’t been great lately, and it’s no wonder; the Japanese manufacturer imported barely any new stock into North America last year, hoping to clear leftovers out of showrooms instead.

This year, though, it appears Suzuki’s managed to turn things around, with news from Powersports Business that the company saw a whopping 400 per cent growth in sales in the first quarter of the year-ago period. Suzuki sold 20,000 motorcycles in North America in this year’s first quarter; they only sold 4,000 motorcycles during the second quarter of 2011.

To put that in perspective, Suzuki only sold 35,000 motorcycles between April and December of 2010, which was a 45 per cent drop from the year before. Business couldn’t have gotten much worse.

But add Suzuki’s Asian growth to those improved North American numbers, and the company’s seen an eight per cent increase in net motorcycle sales to 75 billion yen – surely some good news for a manufacturer that, like many others, was struggling under the effects of the economy.

While the company’s other divisions, such as marine and power products, aren’t faring so well, Suzuki still saw a 23 per cent rise in net income, to 18 billion yen.