Guess heads to Mexico as international push continues.

GUESS Inc. has entered into a joint agreement with Grupo Axo, a Mexican company that has facilitated south-of-the-border expansion of internationally known brands such as Coach, DKNY and Tommy Hilfiger.

The majority-owned joint venture is for the manufacture, distribution and retail sale of Guess products in Mexico. Guess opened a Mexico City store in May under this agreement and a second store is slated for Cancan next July.

"The formation of our new Mexican joint venture is another step forward in our international expansion," said Co-Chairman Paul Marciano of Guess. "We have experienced incredible success with Guess in Canada, which also started out as a joint venture in 1994, and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guess and one of our best performing regions. We hope to achieve similar success with our joint venture partners in Mexico."

Guess has had an impressive year. An overhaul has made the brand a first stop at the mall, and higher-margin sales in Europe have given revenues a boost.

Company stock is up 150 percent over this time last year. The price has steadily risen from about $20 last summer to roughly $50 last week. Second-quarter net income more than tripled to $14.7 million, while sales were up 30 percent to $231 million. European sales more than doubled to $22.8 million.

Not surprisingly, Grupo Axo has great expectations for its new partner. Grupo Co-Chief Executive Andres Gomez said the company expects to position Guess as one of the country's top fashion brands during the first year of their joint venture.