ATLANTA — Despite reporting a unit sales increase last year, Triumph Motorcycles Group remains cautious about future sales.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, revenue for the group increased 29 percent from £220 million ($360 million USD) in 2007 to £284 million ($465 million USD). Unit sales of motorcycles increased 19 percent.

The operating profit before interest and tax grew by 16 percent from £12.5 million ($21 million USD) to £14.5 million ($24 million USD).

“We are cautious in terms of the general market outlook for the 2009 financial year due to the continued global economic crisis and the impact on consumer confidence and spending on discretionary consumer goods,” said Tue Mantoni, chief executive officer for Triumph Motorcycles. “The global motorcycle market has declined, in particular in the last three to six months and we expect this pattern to continue during the rest of this year.”

Mantoni continued, “We are however, cautiously optimistic when it comes to Triumph’s performance. New models are extremely important to driving growth and we are very pleased with the reception of the recently launched Thunderbird, a 1,600cc parallel-twin cruiser. Our global retail network and the enthusiast press have all been impressed with the distinctive styling and excellent performance of this important new model, and we have already built a promising deposit bank, which will give our retailers a strong platform for launching this new model.”