ROCKFORD — Wolverine World Wide Inc. continues to make strides thanks to the hot-selling active-wear Merrell shoes.

The Rockford-based shoe company continued its streak of 23 quarters of record revenues, reporting Wednesday that profits climbed 6 percent and sales rose 2.6 percent for the first-quarter ending March 22. Profits increased to $23.7 million while per share increased to 46 cents, a 17.9 percent increase over the 39 cents for first quarter 2007. That beat analysts’ average forecast of 43 cents per share.

Sales grew to $288.2 million over the past year, helped by global distribution and increased sales.

On the strength of orders for the first quarter, the company boosted its yearlong profit outlook to $1.83 to $1.90 per share, from $1.80 to $1.88 per share. Also, it kept annual sales expectations of $1.230 billion to $1.260 billion.

Merrell’s strong sales in the U.S. and Europe made Wolverine’s Outdoor Group the leading profit contributor during the quarter.

“We continue to believe that Merrell will be our first billion dollar brand,” CEO Blake W. Krueger said in a conference call with analysts Wednesday morning.

Halfway to meeting that goal, Merrell continues to expand into new product lines such as Merrell Apparel launched in 2007.

Merrell, which already has a line of trail running shoes, will be introducing a road running shoe in the fall, targeted at the top 50 to 70 specialty running stores nationwide.

“We want to make sure there is credibility and get buy-in from true enthusiasts before considering growing out,” said Christi Cowdin, director of investor relations.

More at blog.mlive.com

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