STOCKHOLM
Hennes & Mauritz, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, reported a bigger than expected rise in profits over the last three months but cautioned that the strong dollar would increasingly affect costs this year.
The Swedish firm said yesterday that well-received collections, a tight control on costs and further expansion of the business, both online and with more stores, boosted market share and profits in its fiscal first quarter.
Pretax profit rose 34.3 per cent to 4.7 billion crowns ($551 million, Dh2.02 billion) in the three months to end-February. The average forecast given by analysts polled by Reuters had been for a profit of 4.4 billion crowns. H&M said sales, which it had already reported last week were up 25 per cent at 40.3 billion crowns in the period, had carried slightly reduced markdowns than a year earlier and that the gross margin was little changed at 55 per cent despite somewhat higher costs.
Sales so far in March, however, were up 9 per cent in local currencies, which analysts said was a disappointment.
