H&M sales fail to hit expectations

The Swedish fashion brand H&M has revealed that it missed its sales expectations for the second quarter sales growth in its latest financial report.

The retailer reported a shares decrease of 3.6% in early trading as well as unchanged sales in local currencies from March to May including VAT, meaning the it failed to hit analyst expectations of 0.5% growth.

The Swedish brand also reported a total sales rise of 2% to 60.5bn in Swedish kroner (£51.6bn) as it continues to grow its physical retail presence with 4,801 stores by the end of the first quarter, compared with 4,498 stores last year.

This includes stores by newer brands such as Monki, Arket and & Other Stories.

Analysts at Barclays said: “H&M is undertaking a series of turnaround initiatives. Although many of these sound sensible in the longer term, we think they will take time to materialise and continue to view the next 12 months as challenging.”