H&M sales rise 22 percent, rapid retail expansion on cards

Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) for the nine months from December 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015 said that the group’s sales excluding VAT increased by 22 percent to 132,167 million Swedish krona (15,713 million dollars). In local currencies the increase was 12 percent.

Commenting on the group’s positive performance, Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M said, “So far this year our sales including VAT have increased more than 20 percent – an acknowledgement that our collections are well appreciated worldwide. Our other brands are performing well and are continuing to reach out to more and more customers. For example, COS now has around 130 stores across 27 markets, Monki more than 90 stores in 13 markets, & Other Stories 25 stores in 10 markets and Weekday 20 stores in five markets.”

Group sales and profit up in Q3

Profit after financial items increased 11 percent. The group’s profit after tax increased to 15,372 million Swedish krona (1,827 million dollars), corresponding to 9.29 Swedish krona (1.10 dollars) per share, an increase of 12 percent.

For the third quarter from June 1, 2015 to August 31, 2015, the H&M group’s sales in SEK excluding VAT increased by 19 percent. In local currencies the increase was 11 percent. Gross profit increased 14 percent corresponding to a gross margin of 55.9 percent. Profit after financial items was at the same level as last year and amounted to 6,936 million Swedish krona (824.5 million dollars). The group’s profit after tax amounted to 5,306 million Swedish krona (630.7 million dollars), corresponding to 3.21 Swedish krona (0.38 dollar) per share.

Sales including VAT in the period from September 1 to September 22, 2015 increased by 12 percent in local currencies compared to the same period last year.

Continues rapid retail expansion

H&M’s first stores in Macau were well received on its openings in the quarter. The group continued strong expansion with approximately 400 new stores planned to open in 2015. India and South Africa will be new H&M markets in October 2015. Eight new H&M online markets have opened so far in 2015, all of which have had a very good reception. Switzerland and Russia will become new online markets during autumn 2015.

In the 2015/2016 financial year, H&M plans to offer e-commerce in a further nine existing H&M markets and also to open stores in three new markets: New Zealand, Cyprus and Puerto Rico.