Mazda Motor Corp.'s group net profit for the year through March nearly tripled from the previous year to 24.1 billion yen, due to large reductions in operating costs and the appreciation of the euro against the yen, the company announced Friday.
Sales rose 13 percent to 2.36 trillion yen, pretax profit more than doubled to 40.7 billion yen and operating profit surged 77 percent to 50.6 billion yen, according to the firm's earnings forecast for fiscal 2002.
Worldwide sales volume reached 1.02 million units, up 7.2 percent from the previous year, thanks to thriving sales of the Atenza midsize sedan and the Demio compact, company officials said.
Car sales rose 1.9 percent to 294,000 units in Japan, 0.3 percent to 348,000 vehicles in North America, and 33.5 percent to 201,000 units in Europe.
For fiscal 2003, Mazda expects consolidated net profit to total 30 billion yen on sales of 2.42 trillion yen.
Mazda appointment
Mazda Motor Corp. said Friday that Stephen Odell, executive director in charge of European operations, has been named senior managing executive officer in charge of marketing, sales and customer service. Odell replaces David Thomas, who will return to Ford Motor Co. of the United States.