PARIS, Aug 7, 2002/ --- Two of LVMH's chief competitors in France have made announcements that assert their growing strength in the retail wars.

Groupe Galeries Lafayette posted consolidated pre-tax sales for the first half of 2002 of 2.588 billion euros (about $2.5 billion), an almost five percent increase compared to the same period in 2001.

The company, which counts the Monoprix grocery chain and Europa Quartz under its umbrella of brands, saw its department store sales fall 1.1 percent though, to 1.16 billion euros, for the first six months of 2002.

Galeries Lafayette, whose landmark flagship store is located on Paris' Boulevard Haussmann, relies largely on that city's tourist trade, which has dramatically dropped off since last September.

In competition with Galeries Lafayette in Paris is its Boulevard Haussman neighbor Le Printemps, owned by billionaire businessman Francois Pinault's PPR.

Further afield in the city is the rather old-fashioned La Samaritaine, which is in the throes of a trendy overall by its owner LVMH, also owner of the unerringly chic, up-market Le Bon Marche department store on the Left Bank.

In other French retail news, Marionnaud, the chief competitor in Europe to LVMH's faltering Sephora chain, has announced further expansion in Italy, one of its priority growth countries.

The French perfume and beauty retailer, established in a Paris suburb in 1984, has just bought 24 new perfumeries in northern Italy, bringing to over 130 the number of stores the company operates in the Mediterranean country.

Marionnaud is currently operating in 13 European countries with 1148 perfumeries, compared to the over 300 Sephora stores in Europe and the US.