CB Radio News

Increasing CB Radio Sales? You Don’t Say…..

I must admit, I’m a bit of a financial geek.  So when Cobra announced their second quarter results about a week ago, I couldn’t help but read through their earnings press release.  What I found surprised me:

Net sales for the CB radio giant were $34.3 million, down from $39.9 million of the same quarter the year before.  This figure includes sales accross all division:  navigation, two-way radios, CBs, etc.  What surprised me the most was the individual segment performances.  The following is taken from Cobra’s 2nd Quarter press release:

“Mobile navigation sales in the Cobra segment accounted for approximately $4.0 million of this decline, reflecting the company’s strategy to discontinue development of mass marketed mobile navigation products for the North American market and focus its efforts on niche opportunities. Additionally, sales of two-way radios and radar detectors declined, due to weak store traffic and competitive pressures, while Citizens Band radio sales improved, reflecting the launch of the 29 LTD BT — the only Citizens Band radio with Bluetooth® wireless technology.”

- From Cobra’s Q2 08 earnings press release

Did you catch that?  Declining sales were primarily a result of weakness in Navigation and GPS products while CB radio sales, albeit it spurred by the newly release Cobra 29 Bluetooth model, rose from last year!  In a time where GPS units are all the rage and CBs are considered by many a dying technology, I find this development somewhat ironic.  In all fairness, the release mentions that Cobra is moving away from mobile navigation units, which is likely a large factor in their declining sales.  However, it also states that they’re planning on focusing efforts more on “niche opportunities” (cough - CBs - cough) going forward.  This is probably due to the fact that the GPS market is insanely competitive, and that Cobra has the mainstream CB market locked-up.  Why spend millions trying to break into a brutal mainstream electronics market when you already dominate a niche electronics market?  Makes sense to me.

If the popularity of the Cobra 29 BT is any indication, we may just happen to see Cobra continue to release new models that blend old-school CB goodness with sexy new technologies.  I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed…….