According to the quarterly results released by Polaris Industries, its different divisions of recreational vehicles as well as the Victory Motorcycles group have found happy trails.

Increasing its profits year to year from $17.5 million to $25.6 million, Polaris had its off-road vehicles burn the path for a profitable quarter with the on road motorcycles not too far behind.

"Polaris maintained strong momentum in the second quarter, driven by solid market share gains, sales growth and margin expansion. Innovation and execution enabled us to deliver another quarter of solid operating results in an overall economic and powersports industry environment that remains sluggish," commented Scott Wine, Polaris' Chief Executive Officer.

And sales are expected to continue to grow, taking 2010 to 15 to 20 percent over last year. Off-Road vehicles ("ORV") sales, which include sales of both ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) and RANGER(TM) side-by-side vehicles, increased 31 percent during the second quarter 2010 from the second quarter 2009.

"Market share gains across most our product lines, and particularly in our ORV business, continue to drive retail sales demand ahead of our expectations. Together with continued product innovations, improved dealer inventory positions and the success of our go-to-market retail sales process called Max Velocity Program, the higher retail sales velocity in North America is fueling demand in our factories and positive impacts on our bottom line. Our international business also did well in the second quarter, with sales up 32 percent, as market share gains and growth offset the currency weakness and economic concerns in Europe. The 25 percent revenue growth was accompanied and supported by our operational excellence initiatives, which continued to deliver improvements in both product costs and efficiencies during the second quarter," said Wine.

Sales of the On-Road division, which primarily consists of Victory motorcycles, increased 48 percent during the second quarter of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. Cost-cutting measures such as the controversial and confusing manufacturing move to Mexico as well as the important control of inventory and the number of motorcycles that made it out onto the showroom floors were some of the actions Polaris feels helped with string sales during a weak quarter for the North American heavyweight cruiser and touring motorcycle.

The reason for the successful sales? It all about the open roads and Victory’s touring models, the new Cross Country and Cross Roads touring models.

As with many motorcycle manufacturers, Victory has been riding into international markets with some success. The sale of Victory motorcycles in markets outside of North America continues to accelerate, with sales reaching 25 percent of total On-Road/Victory sales for the year-to-date period ended June 30, 2010.

"Next week Polaris will unveil the new model year 2011 products at our annual dealer meeting. We have maintained our focus on product and process innovation and are very excited to introduce several new, high quality products within our ORV and Victory motorcycles lines," Wine said. "We believe these products will further complement and enhance our current portfolio supporting our long track record of developing innovative utility and recreational vehicles for our customers. In an environment that has proven to be very unpredictable, the execution of the Polaris team has been exceptional and we expect the momentum we have generated in the first half of 2010 to continue throughout the remainder of the year."