The world renowned Swedish fashion brand H&M witnessed a significant sales growth of 42 per cent in India in local currencies in Q1 of 2019. Besides, the brand also saw its China sales rise by 16 per cent.
In the first quarter of 2019, H&M surpassed its own expectations and saw improvement in profits as well as margin. The brand also said that its online and offline performances have been improving in several markets.
H&M’s pre-tax profit was 1.04 billion Swedish crowns for quarter ending 28 February, which was much lower than what it was during the same period the previous year (1.26 billion Swedish crowns). However, the numbers were reportedly much more than 708 millions that the analysts had been predicting.
The gross margin was 50 per cent for the quarter, which was a jump from 49.9 per cent in the same period of last year. The analysts, however, had actually expected the figures to go down to 49.4 per cent.
The brand attributed this growth to the continual improvements in buying and logistics. More on the same, Karl-Johan Persson, CEO, H&M, averred “Our ongoing transformation work has contributed to stronger collections with increased full-price sales, lower markdowns and increased market shares.”
The fashion brand plans to add 175 new stores in 2019, and later this year it intends to also launch in Myntra and Jabong, India’s biggest e-commerce markets.
