Arctic Cat, the maker of snowmobiles and ATVs with a plant in Thief River Falls, Minn., reported increased sales but lowered earnings for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015.
The company, which bases its corporate headquarters in Plymouth, Minn., reported sales of $143.6 million in the quarter that ended on June 30. That was up from $120.8 million in the same quarter in the last fiscal year, according to a press release issued late last week.
However, the company’s net earnings totaled $3.6 million compared to $5.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2014. The company cited “the unfavorable Canadian currency exchange” for part of that decline. About 30 percent of Arctic Cat’s sales are to our northern neighbor.
“Higher sales were not enough to overcome the unfavorable Canadian currency,” Arctic Cat Chairman and CEO Chris Twomey said in the press release issued Friday. The Canadian dollar has been consistently weaker than its U.S. counterpart over the past year and a half.
ATV and side-by-side sales were down 16 percent, totaling $63.8 million in the first quarter. That decrease was planned, Twomey said, to reduce dealer inventories ahead of new models being introduced in September. Snowmobile sales were up 149 percent to $56.2 million.
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Former Arctic Cat CEO Claude Jordan stepped down in June, two weeks after the company reported poor financial results for the fourth quarter of 2014.
