Polar 4-Year Financial Performance
via: Jakub, ty
Polar’s financial year appears to go until December, so we’re getting close to the end of its current financial year. It will take a few more months to finish and submit the accounts before we can assess how well the company is faring.
When we look at the financial figures for the year 2022, the performance doesn’t look good. This helps explain why the company announced job cuts in May. Even in a year with good sales, like 2020, the company still reported an operating loss, although it was partially offset by income from another source.
However, the key to survival is cash flow. If Polar has investors with a lot of money or a supportive bank, they might be okay.
I checked the company’s UK accounts, but they didn’t provide much extra insight. The company is likely to be regularly funded from Finland with sufficient working capital to handle regular expenses such as rent and salaries.
Polar Vantage V3
Q: Is Vantage V3 the key to the company’s success/
The Polar Vantage V3 is a crucial, top-of-the-line product for the company. Its launch showcases the company’s commitment and expertise at the top end of the market for GPS sports watches, featuring new technologies such as AMOLED and an optical sensor that can even measure skin temperature. These advancements will be applied to at least 3-4 more watch models in the future, hopefully after some fine-tuning of technical performance.
Although the V3 may not necessarily be the company’s most lucrative product, it probably IS. Its technologies play a vital role in developing, manufacturing and selling the rest of its current generation, including likely models like Grit X gen 2 and others.
Thoughts
Do you think the Polar brand will still be here in 3 years’ time? (I do)
Would you bet on an acquisition in the next 12 months? (Maybe)
What can Polar do to turn sales around? (Increase efforts in North America)
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I used to love Polar but the amount of time it took between the V800 and the Vantage V1 made me and other Polar fans look elsewhere. I’ve said this all along I wish Polar would merge or have open API or have some Joint Venture with Wahoo. A good watch with a good bike computer would be a serious contender to Garmin but for now I’ll just keep my Epix 2 and 1040.
yes, it would be a nice combo if they both worked on the training integration eg Suunto+Hamemrhead kinda works ok into the suunto app. on some levels they are certainyl complemntary. i think the platform integration job would be a significant challenge.
Polar is a complex setup in many jurisdictions e.g Europe, Asia and US. The numbers you are showing are only a part of the story.
it’s the total for the Polar holding company, no? (plus the UK bit further down)
obvisouly the regional pictures will vary. do you know of any intel?
thank you
I have known Polar products since 1996 and I have always been disappointed by the new top watches, not to mention the stagnation in accessories, so I thought early on that Polar would not survive for long. But they made it anyway. To this day, it still feels like a tightrope walk – always
on the brink of disaster. That’s particularly frustrating:
Polar always blames its problems on its customers.
With the introduction of the Vantage, I briefly believed in a new beginning.
A new beginning, partly because Polar’s terrible website was finally improved (and is still top-notch today, at least the the website…), but that was a permanent mistake.
With the V3, Polar continues where they started with the V1
It’s a “misery with an announcement”.
Polar makes me feel like a notorious liar every time
when it swears on its knees that it will do better next time – only to make it just as bad as before. Only marketing tells
new fairy tales every time and invents unusual names for their
technologies. It’s so absurd.
I speculate that something radical will happen to Polar within 3 years.
I don’t think Polar is seriously winning customers. They make with every new watch customers get frustrated and go to the big competitor. It seems to me that they are doing this on purpose to bring about insolvency.
Polar urgently needs to stop constantly bringing defective products
on the market. At least the faults should be
within the limits of what happens with other companies.
But just again with the V3, which crashes after purchase (mine does
so I haven’t used it for almost a month – I paid 600 euros for it!), they are doing everything they can to further ruin their ruined reputation and make themselves look ridiculous.
This is so crazy!
I would like to know how much it costs Polar just to return
the Vantage V3… Not counting the moral damage…
Polar needs to be swept out on the executive floor.
Yikes! you’re definitely not sitting on the fence there!
I’ve not had the crashes you mention.
V3 should be a ‘simple’ case of the integration of a few new bits of hardware. Not so much has changed with the software. So I have sympathy for when you say that you hope the bugs would be ironed out. All the longstanding features should be bug free. If the skin temp comes a bit buggy (and things like that) i dont really care. What defects were you particularly thinking of?
No crashes? Wow! You’re a lucky man! Do you want my watch? Polar is trying to stall me so I don’t have to take the watch back. They are apparently waiting for the new firmware, as Polar service also told me. Presumably they then want to proudly write to me:
“We have a new firmware for you. Congratulations! Unfortunately, we cannot pay compensation for the two months of non-use of your Vantage V3. It would have been best if you hadn’t bought the watch when it first came onto the market. You know us, hehe …”
What defects? Well, there are always different defects from watch to watch, as all Polar users know. I mean those who use Polar regularly, not just those who just test the watch.
(Da die V3 bei mir seit Kauf (außer wenige Tage der Benutzung bis zur Entdeckung der Abstürze) im Schrank liegt, kann ich über sonstige Fehler dieser Uhr nichts sagen, aber DCRainmaker hat sich ja auch schon geäußert. Und nicht nur er …)
In English:
“Since the V3 has been sitting in my closet since purchase (except for a few days of use until the crashes were discovered), I can’t speak about any other issues with this watch. But DCRainmaker has already expressed his thoughts. And not only him…”
Better for you:
(Since the V3 has been in my cupboard since I bought it (except for a few days of use until I discovered the crashes), I can’t say anything about other faults with this watch, but DCRainmaker has already commented on it. And not only him …)
😉
I found inaccuracies in my tests: https://the5krunner.com/2023/11/08/polar-vantage-v3-accuracy-report-is-it-accurate/
Polar has been in contact with me about them and my accuracy tests are probably similar to Rays. I would agree that accuracy needs improving.
I’m not sure if Ray was using beta firmware for his hike when he got the crashes, i think he had his V3 for longer than me prior to release.
Ray says, “I’ve had both the crashes during the hike, but I can also get it to crash pretty reliably if I finish an indoor trainer workout (and connected to a power meter), and then just wait about 1-2 minutes on that workout summary screen, it’ll crash.” I haven’t tried to replicate that!
there are always bugs with new products. (I’m not trying to excuse Polar or anyone else…its’ just the way it is…actually Apple are pretty good)
Hey tfk,
Everyone agrees that such products (unfortunately) always have flaws when they come onto the market. Bad enough.
But I think what the V3 delivers is a mess.
The V3 is allowed to do anything but crash all the time or give you the unpleasant feeling every time you run that all the data is suddenly gone.
Imagine buying a refrigerator and having to expect it to switch off at some point… Certainly not a trivial offense for you or others.
To sum it up, you have been consistently disappointed by POLAR since 1996, but you keep buying their products, even apparently on day one, which is notoriously risky for tech products. And then you complain how badly they treat you when they usually have a pretty flexible return policy.
You are not very credible. You should rethink your choices, there are enough alternatives if its that bad. I have a V3 too and had a single crash so far. Not great but I’ll wait for the firmware upgrade that will certainly improve things.
Hello Daniel,
being “credible” on the Internet is not that easy, especially if you are one of the few who have a lot of experience. Younger people in particular find it hard to imagine, sometimes because they were just born when some products came onto the world market …
What YOU believe or not is entirely up to YOU. May it be your luck or your misfortune.
You can’t imagine when Polar products started and you can’t imagine the path of a marathon runner you don’t know. Okay, that’s not my problem. 🙂
It’s sad that you assume that you shouldn’t buy a product when it first appears on the market. Polar should know your opinion, then they would wait and launch the product later. Haha …
Do you understand what I mean? 😀
Yes, Polar treats me badly. And they shouldn’t. It’s unfriendly what this company does. I haven’t used my V3 for almost a month and I’m waiting for the service to finally send me the return label.
I paid 600 euros for this …
Which decision should I reconsider? The one I already made when I bought the watch? What you’re saying doesn’t make sense.
It’s great that you “only” had one crash. I had at least one every day.
And for your information, I have an email in which Polar admits that the V3 has a crash problem.
One thing is clear: if you’ve only had one crash, you’re one of the luckiest. Or not, because a crash on a sports watch is always a real problem for serious athletes.
Don’t you find it sad how companies like Polar keep taking the piss out of their customers? I do.
So believe your dark thoughts less and have more faith in your fellow human beings.
Stay cheerful
Again, you don’t make sense. The V3 came out a month ago and you say you haven’t used it for a month, but still you manage to get a crash almost ever day. See what I mean with credibility? It just comes across as brand bashing for the sake of it.
On the contrary, I will wait for the next patch and I’m confident they’ll fix the most critical issues, as I’ve seen them do for the past 25 years. You’re not the only with a history. And the grass is not greener elsewhere, other brands have gone through the same teething issues.
If you are so dependent on a device for your training, you’re careless to put your training in the hands of an unproven device. Stick to what works until it’s bullet proof. Again, not credible.
Anyway, I hope you get your refund soon and move on.
A bike computer in the future? Polar close the Door to cycling?
I think so (no intel)
For anybody looking to invest in a platform over the long term in which to collect and store data that can be trended over time to help with improving athletic performance, those financial results are troublesome. If Polar goes south (😉) and users have to switch platforms it will be a waste of the effort spent collecting an building up the data in Polar Flow (not a bad idea to have an exercise diary spreadsheet as well). With a market cap of $24bn and healthy sales, Garmin at least offer stability.
Nah, everything is going fine! We all like 240×240 dim screens, low battery life, worst support of big sportwatch producers (garmin, coros, suunto), old UI / bad UX,no new functions. I wrote about it for years and even have an argue with mister 5k. I like Polar and dont want to be right but they worked for that for years. I hope someone buy them and make proper watches, just for sport.