The Lafuma Group is showing some positive results for its fiscal first half-year with a 7.0% increase in total sales to €87.3 million ($113.9 mm), compared to €81.6 million ($98.2 mm) last year. International sales within the group are showing similar results, with sales up 7.6% to €38.4 million ($50.1 mm), compared to €35.7 million ($43.0 mm).

Globally, Millet and Le Chameau outperformed average market growth on their respective markets while the “generalist outdoor” division has remained stable, owing to the integration of Ober and an increase in business for Lafuma in Southern Europe, the UK, and Asia.

Lafuma’s second fiscal quarter slowed down a bit compared to the first quarter, but the group still posted a 5.0% increase in sales to €50.3 million ($66.0 mm), compared to €47.9 million ($57.1 mm) last year. International sales were up 4.4% to €23.6 million ($31.0 mm) compared to €22.6 million ($26.9 mm) last year.

Lafuma’s North American business is doing quite well also. “We are growing, not as fast as we expected, but our position in the market is getting stronger. We have opened approximately 75 new dealers this spring and are expecting to do at least the same next year,” Guillaume Linossier, the president of Lafuma N.A. told BOSS. “In 2005, 85% of our existing dealers have increased their business with Lafuma. We are expecting a lot from the spring ‘06 season.”

Currently Lafuma is offering only portions of their line to the U.S. Market, preferring to introduce consumers to their products incrementally instead of in one big push. The company offers all sleeping bag products, half of the footwear, 20% of the clothing, 30% of the packs, and 100% of the camp furniture. Linossier told BOSS that footwear is the fastest growing segment.

Lafuma recently introduced apparel to the North American market, and has seen some success. “We reintroduced it (apparel) at OR, after 2 seasons “on hold,” and it has been performing better than we expected,” Linossier told BOSS. “The main interest is in our casual line and in products that are different from the competition in terms of style, design.”

At the beginning of the company’s fiscal second quarter, Lafuma consolidated all of their sales, marketing, customer service. and warehouse operations into one building in Broomfield, Colo.

“Having our warehouse together with our office is helping us a lot. We have improved significantly our customer service (with) better & more efficient deliveries and it will help us in having a better control on our inventory. We also have a large showroom to invite our main dealers. We have a new IT system that is also up and running and we are currently implementing EDI with some of our key accounts.”