Mavic parent Amer Sports reported a 2 percent increase in sales for the first quarter on Thursday, and said it expected full-year sales to rise by at least 5 percent.
For Amer's Mavic cycling brand, sales rose slightly to $47.6 million (36.6 million euros), with the company reporting that sales of helmets and footwear continued to grow. Cycling accounted for 6 percent of Amer's total sales last year.
"The first quarter is typically a low quarter for Amer Sports, and we are still seeing a shift from pre-order based sales toward re-orders in several of our categories," Heikki Takala, president and CEO, said in a statement. "Whilst the external conditions remain challenging we remain well in line with our growth and profitability improvement targets with a positive full year outlook."
Net sales for the total company reached 493 million euros for the quarter. Strongest performing categories were apparel, up 25 percent; fitness, up 6 percent; and sports equipment, up 4 percent. Net profit was 14.8 million euros, compared with 18.8 million euros for the same quarter of 2012. Earnings per share were 13 euro cents, compared with 15 euro cents for the comparable quarter.
Sales to Russia and China saw double-digit growth. The company said Europe continues to be a challenging market. Amer plans to focus on growing apparel sales and tapping into its "solid innovation pipeline" for future products.
Also today, Amer announced plans to buy back up to 1 million shares during 2013.
Along with Mavic, the Finnish sporting goods conglomerate owns brands in winter sports, footwear, apparel, ball sports and fitness, including Salomon, Atomic, Arc'teryx, Suunto and Precor.
In trading Thursday, Amer shares rose 1.5 percent to 12.94 euros on the Helsinki stock exchange.
