Hennes & Mauritz recorded record profits of 2.3 billion kronor for the first quarter of the year. Stockholm’s bourse reacted promptly with shares in the company rising by 4% to 256 kronor on Wednesday morning.
H&M’s managing director, Rolf Eriksen, puts the figures down to better than expected Christmas sales.
“We’ve only needed to drop our prices slightly in January and February,” Eriksen told DN.
H&M continues to expand with 61 new stores planned for the second quarter of the year, 12 of which will be in Germany. Spain and Poland are to get 6 new stores each. During the same period last year 50 new stores opened.
By the end of the year H&M expect to have 1200 stores worldwide in twenty-two countries.
Germany, representing 30% of H&M’s overall market, was said to have delivered disappointing results. The company’s best-performing stores in the first quarter of the year were in the Nordic region, Spain, France and North America.
