H&M reports lower earnings, revenues increase by 5 percent

Swedish manufacturer and retailer of trendy clothing and accessories, H&M said on Thursday its full year revenues increased by 5 percent, while in local currencies, net sales improved by 3 percent. Profit fell by 21.8 percent from the same period last year.

"Against a backdrop of rapid changes in the fashion industry, in 2018 we accelerated our transformation to future proof our business, ending a challenging year for the H&M Group and the sector with strong signals that we are on track. While this performance is still some way off the targets that we set at the beginning of 2018, these positive signals confirm we’re making progress across all our strategic focus areas, said H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson in a statement.

Review of H&M's full year and Q4 results

The company’s sales in FY18 were 210,400 million Swedish krona, up from 200,004 million Swedish krona a year earlier. Net profit fell to 12,652 million Swedish krona. The profit margin of the company declined to 6 percent compared to 8.1 percent a year ago.

For the fourth quarter, the company's net sales increased by 12 percent to 56,414 million Swedish krona, while in local currencies, net sales were up by 6 percent. Profit after financial items amounted to 4,352 million Swedish krona compared to 4,873 million Swedish krona last year and the group’s profit after tax amounted to 3,543 million Swedish krona against 3,993 million Swedish krona in the fourth quarter last year, corresponding to 2.14 Swedish krona per share.

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB was founded in 1946 by Erling Persson and is based in Stockholm, Sweden. The H&M group through its nine brands — H&M, Cos, Monki, Weekday, & Other Stories, Cheap Monday, H&M Home, Arket and Afound, offer a wide variety of trendy fashion, beauty, accessories and homewares.

Offering fashion, accessories and home ware, the Stockholm-listed company has about 123,200 employees worldwide and operates more than 4,900 stores.

For more recent news on the business, collections and executive changes of H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB, click here.

Picture:H&M media gallery