Mild Winter Is Bad News for Some Firms : Sales of Snowblowers, Snowmobiles Hurt

With only a dusting of snow on the ground in many parts of the northern United States, retail snowblower sales are in low gear after a strong preseason selling period, and snowmobile makers are concerned about a slump in 1987, manufacturers said Monday.

“If you know how to do a snow dance, I wish you’d join in,” said Rich Mueller, director of marketing at Toro Co. of Bloomington, Minn., the largest U.S. manufacturer of snowblowers. “Now that we haven’t had any snow, the retails are down quite a bit, but I don’t know what the percentages are.”

Mueller said long-range weather forecasts in the fall were for a severe winter, which may have contributed to heavy preseason snowblower sales in September, October and early November.

Toro has posted sales and earnings increases in each of the past three years. In fiscal 1986, the company had net income of $15.5 million on sales of $406.6 million, Mueller said.

But with no snow to shovel in December, retailers suffered, he said.

“January will tell the story,” Mueller said. “If there’s no snow and they aren’t buying in January, consumers are more apt to say: ‘I can get by shoveling a few more snowfalls and get one next year.’ ”

But like snowmobile manufacturers, Toro won’t feel the financial pinch from a winter of light snow until the following season. The bulk of the company’s sales to dealers is made before snow is an issue, and retailers may reduce their orders for the winter of 1987-88.