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H&M’s quarterly sales better than predicted

By Nagasunder in UK Business News, posted December 15, 2022

Net revenues for H&M increased by 10 percent from September to November last year, which is slightly better than predicted.

The second-largest fashion retailer in the world reported fiscal fourth-quarter sales of 62.5 billion Swedish crowns ($6.13 billion), up from 56.8 billion crowns a year earlier.

Sources claim sales are marginally above the 9.5 percent increase predicted by the market.

According to Reuters, 62.17 billion crowns was the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

H&M has found it difficult to compete with Zara, a bigger rival, and last month it made history by becoming the first major European store to fire employees in reaction to the rising cost of living as it attempts to save 2 billion Swedish crowns ($196 million) annually.

“The H&M group’s operations in Russia and Belarus were wound up during the quarter, with the remaining stock being sold off and the last stores having closed on 30 November,” the company said in a statement.

“During the quarter around 25–50 stores in China were temporarily closed due to new Covid outbreaks,” it added.

Measured in local currencies, sales in the quarter were unchanged, it said.

In spite of a challenging business environment for fashion companies due to declining global demand for apparel, H&M's competitor and owner of Zara, Inditex, announced this week a 24 percent increase in net profit for the first nine months of its fiscal year.

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The world's largest fashion retailer has hiked prices by at least five percent since the spring in anticipation of inflationary pressures in numerous areas.

As a result, store and online sales increased by 19 percent from a year ago to reach 23.1 billion euros, somewhat quicker than analysts had predicted.

Source: Retail Gazette

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