Columbia Sportswear Company raised its full year outlook after reporting sales growing by 13% in the first quarter reaching a record 479.0 million US dollars. Excluding the negative impact of currency exchange rates sales would have grown by 17%.

“2015 is off to a strong start, building on the momentum we created in 2014 behind the Columbia, Sorel and Prana brands”, commented Columbia CEO Tim Boyle, adding: “We are experiencing exceptional sell-through in North America through the first half of the spring season and our European business has returned to growth. Sorel is poised for a very strong second half and full year net sales of more than 200 million US dollars, while Prana remains on pace to deliver annualized growth of more than 20%.”

First quarter US net sales increased by 18 %, including 30.8 million US dollars of incremental Prana net sales. Net sales in Canada grew by 28%, including 4.0 million US dollars of incremental Prana net sales. Latin America/Asia Pacific (LAAP) region net sales decreased by 3% and Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) region net sales increased by 22%, including 2.0 million US dollars of incremental Prana net sales.All regions were impacted by negative impact of currency exchange rates.

Columbia brand net sales increased by 7% totaling 401.0 million US dollars. Sorel brand net sales went up by 4%, to reach 13.4 million US dollars. Mountain Hardwear net sales decreased 23% (now totaling 25.1 million US dollars).

Net sales for both segments, Apparel, Accessories & Equipment and Footwear increased by 13%, reaching respectively 399.3 million US dollars and 79.7 million US dollars.

First quarter operating income increased 24% to 44.1 million US dollars, equating to 9.2% operating margin, and net income totaled 26.5 million US dollars, or 0.37 US dollars per diluted share, an increase of 19% compared with first quarter 2014 net income of 22.3 million US dollars, or 0.32 US dollars per diluted share.

The company continues to expect high single-digit 2015 net sales growth (low teen growth on a constant-dollar basis) compared to 2014 net sales of 2.1 billion US dollars.