Business Description
Suzuki builds small cars, motorcycles and outboard marine engines. Automobiles account for about 91% of revenue, motorcycles some 7% and the marine business around 2%, and roughly three-quarters of sales come from outside Japan. At home it is one of the two leaders in kei cars, the sub-660cc minicar class that exists only because of Japan's tax and parking rules; abroad it is the world's third-largest motorcycle maker. It withdrew from the Chinese market in 2018 and sells no passenger cars in the United States.
The engineering identity is deliberately narrow — small, light, cheap and frugal vehicles — a position chosen away from Toyota's and Honda's, and the reason the company took root in India and in emerging markets generally. It also sets the shape of earnings: thin margins per vehicle on very large volumes, so profit turns on Indian demand, model mix and the rupee far more than on Japanese demand. A capital and technology alliance with Toyota supports its electrification and software work. Founded in 1920 in Hamamatsu as Suzuki Loom Works, supplying weaving looms to the local cotton trade, it moved into motorcycles and then cars after the war, still keeps its head office in Hamamatsu rather than Tokyo, and reports on a March fiscal year.
Corporate Data
| Ticker | 7269 |
|---|---|
| Exchange | Tokyo Stock Exchange |
| Size Category | TOPIX Large70 |
| Market Segment | Prime Market |
| Sector | Transportation Equipment |
| Head Office | 300 Takatsuka-cho, Chuo-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8611, Japan |
| Founded | March 15, 1920 |
| Fiscal Year End | March 31 |
| Website | Official website |