Nokian Tyres Q3 profit falls to Euro 16.9 million

Nokia, Finland -- Finland's Nokian Tyres has posted a pre-tax profit of Euro 16.9 million for the three months to September 2005, down from 29.3 million a year ago. Net sales rose to Euro 150.2 million from 141.2 million a year earlier.

For the nine-month period, sales rose by 13.7 percent, to Euro 445.6 million, while the net profit was up slightly at Euro 46.8 million from Euro 44.0 million.

"Heavy investments in Russia, the changes in Vianor's business structure, winter tyre pre-sales in early 2005 and stiffer competition burdened the performance of Nokian Tyres. This has not made us change our targets: we aim at strong, profitable growth in the tyre markets," said in a statement Kim Gran, the Nokian Tyres chief executive.

In a statement, Nokian said, "The sales mix was weaker than in 2004, bringing down the July-September sales and result of Nokian Tyres. Contract manufactured tyres accounted for a clearly bigger share of passenger car sales in the third quarter compared to the corresponding period a year earlier. Winter tyre pre-sales was active during the first half of the year, with sales increasing by 36% from the previous year. Tyre retailers' winter tyre inventories were on a high level, and they will start to decrease when consumer sales get going in the last quarter. Demand for heavy tyres increased, and sales hit record numbers."