Sales by Swedish clothing chain Hennes and Mauritz increased by 9 percent in June compared to the same month last year.
The increase was not good enough for analysts, however, who had expected more. According to a survey by Reuters, analysts had on average expected a sales increase of 12.5 percent.
Sales in May increased by 13 percent.
News agency AFX said H and M shares were expected to fall in opening trading on Monday.
Six months after establishing itself in Stockholm, Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo has announced it will sponsor Sweden’s athletes at the 2020 Olympics.
The clothing chain, one of the world’s fastest-growing retail companies, is also set to open more stores in the Scandinavian country.
“Swedes are so sophisticated and warm-hearted,” Uniqlo Europe CEO Taku Morikawa said, stressing how welcome his company has been made to feel.
Morikawa was in Sweden to present the partnership between Uniqlo and the Swedish Olympic Committee at an event at Uniqlo’s store on Hamngatan in Stockholm.
Sweden’s athletes wore teamwear supplied by H&M at the last two Olympic Games.
The Stockholm store, Uniqlo’s first in the Nordic region, opened its doors in August 2018. An expansion is now planned on the Swedish market, although Morikawa declined to reveal where.
“We definitely have plans to open more stores here,” he said.
A store will also open in Danish capital Copenhagen in the coming spring as Uniqlo’s holding company Fast Retailing continues its global expansion.
Sales figures in Sweden’s clothing retail sector have seen a downward trend in recent years, with an exception in 2015.
H&M is usually cited as one of Uniqlo’s main competitors.
The impact of a new player on an already-competitive market is difficult to predict, according to the Swedish Trade Federation (Svensk Handel).
“Locally, competition is sharpened, but competition is already fierce. I would be inclined to say that this type of partly new concept store can, instead, help to revitalise the physical retail sector for clothing,” the association’s head economist Johan Davidson said.
READ ALSO: H&M profit down sharply despite rise in online sales
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