Fast Fashion H&M Sales Decline In March, Shares Hit A New Low Of 4 Years

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, H&M The sales figures released by Hennes & Mauritz AB (HMb.ST) in March this year, though improved in February, are still worse than the previous group's own expectations and market expectations, dragging down the group's stock price by 1.4% to 215.7 euros today, the lowest level since the end of 2012.

In the past year, the world's second largest clothing Retailers' sales and profits have not been up to many times. In February this year, its sales fell for the first time in 4 years, although the group explained that the negative effect of the calendar year's leap year's 4 percentage point effect led to a 1% decline in sales, but it has fully reflected the group's slump.

When the first quarter earnings report was released in March 30th, H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB AB said that the 1-28 day sales of global tax included an annual increase of 7% according to the local exchange rate, but today's monthly report shows that the increase in March has narrowed to 6%, up 8% in the same period last year. In March, the first quarter of the two quarter, the Group recorded only 4% growth in the first quarter. The group chief executive, Karl-Johan Persson, has warned that the annual sales will be difficult to achieve the growth target of 10%-15%. He also pointed out today that 3, 4 and May should be considered as one, because Easter holidays will fall in different months, and the weather varies greatly during this period.

Soci e t e G e n e rale SA, analysts at the Bank of China, Anne Critchlow Critchlow, said the sales figures for March were another blow to the group. In April, despite the Easter boost, the cold weather in the important Nordic and Western European markets may limit the demand for spring clothes. The number of non stylish Chinese networks shows that the group's stock increased by 30% in the first quarter.

Anne Critchlow believes that the biggest challenge for the group lies in H&M brand The price competition in the "value fashion" field is the most intense, and it is also the most crowded market in the clothing industry. GlobalData PLC analyst Maureen Hinton said that when the brand develops very well, it will be very difficult to maintain growth, and new markets and new customers must be found.

In recent years, H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB hopes to offset the slowdown in H&M by introducing a more high-end brand. Last month, the group announced that it will launch a new high-end brand ARKET this fall. The concept is similar to the latest brand (born in 2013), Other Stoires, and the first high-end brand COS that was founded 10 years ago, but it is different from any concept of the group. The home brand H&M Home will also set up its first independent store in 2018. The group revealed last month that COS, Other Stories, Monki, Weekday and H&M Home were excellent progress in the first quarter.

Carnegie analyst Niklas Ekman said that the group's performance once again proved the difficulty of the market, and he was puzzled by the radical expansion of the group under such a background, and thought that it should first slow down the pace of expansion.

As of March 31st, the group had 4426 stores worldwide, an increase of 10% over the same period last year, 3997. Now the group has shifted its focus from offline to online. In the first half of the fiscal year, H&M brand will introduce e-commerce in Turkey, Taiwan, Hongkong, Macao, Singapore and Malaysia.

H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB (HMb.ST) fell 1.05% to 216.4 Swedish kronor at the end of the session, which has fallen 27.1% in the past 12 months. Analysts Anne Critchlow and Niklas Ekman have awarded the stock's "sell" rating.

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