Alpine Electronics reported a profit increase of almost 29 percent, with a gain in sales of 3 percent for the year ending March 31.
Net sales hit $2.5 billion (294,560 million yen) up from $2.4 billion a year ago. Net income totaled $105.7 million compared to $76.8 million a year ago.
Alpine’s financial statement said it launched a 10-inch system—the largest of its type in the world—in Japan that helped boost overall sales, but there was no mention of bringing that product to the US. The company said only that “Alpine aims to foster fresh demand through the full scale rollout in the North American aftermarket of large screen navigation systems tailored to specific vehicle models.”
Despite its strong performance, Alpine foresees a drop in profits for the coming year. It is forecasting a 3 percent decline in net sales to $2.37 billion (285 billion yen) and significantly lower profits of $58.26 million, down 44 percent from the year just ended.
Alpine also mentioned that it launched a CarPlay radio and joined Google’s alliance for those interested in producing Android Auto ready products. And it continues to jointly develop a future car platform with Fujitu Ten.
Alpine said continued strength in new car sales in the US helped its OEM business post this past year an increase of 7 percent to $1.9 billion in OEM navigation and information product sales. Sales of OEM audio CD players, however, dropped 9.3 percent to $523.6 million.
