Ducati reports positive cash flow in 2020 despite challenges

Michelle Liew

March 19, 2021

48,042 motorcycles delivered, € 676 million in turnover and € 24 million in operating profit, equal to 4% of operating margin.

Ducati New Monster Plus

With a challenging year last year in 2020, many manufacturers have faced difficulties but Ducati rises up to its potential by reinforcing its past solidity. Even with the pandemic, the seven-week halt in production right at the period of the season was not a hurdle for the company. Ducati managed to deliver a total of 48,042 motorcycles to customers all over the world. In 2019, the company recorded a sales unit of 53,183, thus limiting the sales gap to -9.7% in 2020.

The end of 2020 revenue reached a figure of € 676 million (2019: € 716 million). The operating profit was € 24 million (2019: € 52 million), with an operating margin of 4%. Sales growth trend compared to 2019 was observed in China (+26%), Germany (+6.7%) and in Switzerland (+11.1%). Italy remains the first market for Ducati, followed by the USA.

The turnover per bike figure has grown to € 14,883/motorcycle (2019: € 13,500). This is the highest value ever reached in the history of the Company. This consistently reflects the strategy of evolving the product range towards the highest and premium part of the market.

Claudio Domenicali, CEO of Ducati Motor Holding

“2020 was indeed a challenging year but we are satisfied with our financial performance throughout. Thanks to rigorous discipline, we were able to reduce fixed costs thus limiting operating margin drop. At the same time, vastly reducing inventories had positive effects on cash flow, which is the best ever recorded to date. Investments in new products were fully untouched. This paved the way for the positive development of Ducati in the future.
A heartfelt thank you goes out to the women and men of Ducati who, every day, with passion and dedication, contribute to the company’s strength and success even in this very complex and tough year.”

Oliver Stein, CFO Ducati Motor Holding

“Financial stability is extremely important for the company to support its technological development, product and process innovation programmes, along with Ducati Corse department activities. A solid financial foundation guaranteed us to maintain these important pillars also in these challenging times. We are glad that we were able to guide Ducati through such a complex situation in 2020. We will start 2021 with a trusting attitude to recover clearly faster than originally anticipated.”