By Helen Reid and Agata Rybska
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish fast-fashion retailer H&M reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter sales on Thursday due in part to a late Black Friday, but said sales were up 4% in December and January, indicating a better start to the new fiscal year.
H&M’s sales in the fourth quarter to Nov. 30 were 62.19 billion Swedish crowns ($5.65 billion), up 3% in local currencies, a weaker performance than analysts’ mean forecast of 63.48 billion Swedish crowns.
Black Friday landed on Nov. 29 last year, and H&M said more of its sales around that key discounting day were reported as revenues in December, hitting quarterly sales by just under 1%.
Operating profit margin for the quarter was 7.4%, up from 6.9% a year before, as CEO Daniel Erver, who took over a year ago, said investments in marketing were starting to pay off.
“Strong online sales together with improved product presentation and a more inspiring shopping experience, well-received womenswear collections and effective cost control all contributed to a positive development in the quarter,” Erver said in a statement.
In a push to make the H&M brand trendier, Erver has hiked marketing spending and hired pop star Charli XCX to model H&M’s autumn collection and to perform at free gigs attended by thousands during London Fashion Week and in New York’s Times Square.
($1 = 11.0038 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Helen Reid in Stockholm and Agata Rybska in Gdansk; Editing by Terje Solsvik and Jan Harvey)
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