H&M moves to reassure investors over trading

0 The retailer hopes an online push and investment in new brands will deliver improved results Highstreetfashiongianth&m has said it is braced for further sales falls across its stores in 2018, but hopes an online push and investment in new brands will deliver a “somewhat better result” than last year.

In a move to reassure worried investors, H&M said it expects a 25 per cent surge in sales online and from its new brands such as COS and H&M Home this year, while it expects stores to return to like-for-like sales growth from 2019 onwards.

The group said it is hoping for higher earnings this year and “good increases in profit” from 2019 onwards as it overhauls the business.

The comments came ahead of H&M’S first capital markets day briefing for investors after it admitted last month it made “mistakes” and revealed fourth-quarter profits slumped by more than a third. H&M has seen its shares nearly halve in value over the past three years as it has struggled to keep up with the shift towards online shopping and increased competition.