May 11 (Reuters) - Maidenform Brands Inc's (MFB.N) popular shapewear products boosted first-quarter results and the intimate apparel maker's current-quarter earnings view blew past estimates, sending its shares up 8 percent before the bell.

www.maidenform.com

The company outlined a slate of new ventures for the year, including shapewear kiosks at high-traffic malls, a new website, and a new line of innerwear for younger women.

Shapewear -- or undergarments that help slim and sculpt a body by holding it in -- makes up more than a third of the company's global business, and is also its highest-margin category.

Maidenform said it currently has over 40 percent of market share in the category.

During the quarter, department store sales, which have been a drag on the company till recently, also grew 32 percent along with sales at national chain stores.

For the first quarter, Maidenform, which competes with Victoria's Secret parent Limited Brands Inc (LTD.N), earned $12 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with $6 million, or 26 cents a share, last year.

Revenue rose 25 percent to $142.9 million.

Analysts, on average, were expecting Maidenform to earn 40 cents a share, on revenue of $133.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

For the second quarter, the company expects to earn between 45 cents a share and 50 cents a share, while analysts were looking at earnings of 37 cents.

Shares of the Iselin, New Jersey-based company were up at $23.45 before the bell. They had closed at $21.80 Monday 10 May on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)