Swedish fashion retailer H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB has accelerated the rate of store closures in 2020 and reduced the number of openings, as compared to previous plans. The company has scheduled shop closures at around 170 locations and about 130 new shop openings, resulting in a total decrease of about 40 shops.
“I am full of admiration for our employees’ commitment, drive and perseverance during this very challenging time. As we have reopened our stores, sales have begun to recover at a faster rate than expected. To meet the rapid changes in customer behaviour caused by Covid-19 we are accelerating our digital development, optimising the store portfolio and further integrating the channels. With our ambitious sustainability work we want to continue to lead fashion retail towards a more sustainable future,” said H&M CEO Helena Helmersson in the company’s six-month report for December 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020.
“During the pandemic it became clear how important it is that the digital and physical channels interact to meet customers’ needs. When the majority of the stores were temporarily closed in the second quarter, we focused on redirecting product flow to our digital channels, which remained open at all times in nearly all our online markets. Online sales increased by 36 percent in SEK during the quarter,” Helmersson said.
Since we started reopening our stores the positive growth of online sales has continued. Our overall revenue steadily started to stabilize when the stores reopened. Our recovery speed differs greatly from market to market, partly because local constraints vary but have been better than anticipated so far, she added.
For the second quarter ended May 31, 2020, H&M reported 50 per cent sales decline to SEK 28,664 million, compared to sales of SEK 57,474 million in same period prior year. However, online sales increased 36 per cent during Q2 FY20. Company incurred a loss of SEK 4,991 million in the quarter.
SOURCE: Fibre2Fashion
