H&M takes profit hit as it struggles to shift stock

0 Swedish-headquartered Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) is one of the world’s biggest fashion retailers H&M’S profits slumped in the six months to 31 May as it struggled to shift stock, with sales remaining broadly flat.

The Swedish fashion giant’s profit after tax fell from SEK8.35 billion (£701 million) to SEK6.01BN, a drop of 28 per cent.

Sales for the six months, excluding VAT, came in at SEK98.37BN (£8.36bn).

H&M group, which comprises a suite of brands including Cos, Weekday and Monki, has been setting up a new logistics system to allow it to get prod- uct to its stores faster, but said the transition had caused problems in some major markets.

Boss Karl-johan Persson said: “As we signalled previously, it was going to be a tough first half-year. We went into the second quarter carrying too much stock and we still had some imbalances in the H&M assortment.

“As part of our transformation we are transitioning our logistics systems to make our supplychainevenfaster,more flexible and more efficient.”