H&M annual sales rise, sees Q4 acceleration but is boosted by currency effects

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 17, 2018

H&M issued its full-year and Q4 figures on Monday and they came in roughly in line with expectations as the company saw sales rising 5% during fiscal 2018.

The retailer said that it “continued to grow globally during 2018 in a rapidly changing fashion industry” with that 5% increase (including VAT) meaning sales hit SEK244.266bn (£21.37bn/€23.76bn) in FY18. In local currencies, sales including VAT increased by 3%.

There seems to have been an acceleration during Q4, which should be encouraging given the weak conditions in the marketplace at the moment. The company said that quarterly sales in the period to November 30 and including VAT increased as much as 12% to SEK 65.449bn. In local currencies they rose only 6%.

H&M is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to sharing information in its quarterly and annual reports so there was little else said about the two periods, although there will be an analyst conference call later on Monday.

But it’s clear that a big part of the company’s boost came from currency effects. And there are concerns among analysts that some of the sales growth won’t have been very profitable. With the company having needed to reduce a record inventory position, it could have been driving sales by heavy discounting.

We won’t know the full impact of all that, however, until the firm’s full results are reported on January 31, so watch this space.