Swedish fashion giant H&M has unveiled expectation-beating first-quarter profits as sales held firmer than anticipated.
Operating profit sat at 2.08 billion Swedish krona (£160 million) for the three months to February, against analysts’ expectations of 1.3 billion krona and up 186% on a year earlier.
This was on the back of a slimmer-than-anticipated 2% decrease in sales to 53.67 billion Swedish krona, as operating margins rose from 1.3% to 3.9% year on year.
"The quarter's sales gradually improved during February with well-received Spring collections, which is a positive sign that we are on the right track," new chief executive Daniel Erver said in an earnings release.
Better supply chain conditions, a cost and efficiency programme, alongside continued normalisation of external factors aided margins over the quarter, H&M said, though costs of markdowns did climb.
Such factors are set to have a positive over the latter half of the year, the retailer added, while sales were said to have increased by 2% over the second quarter so far.
“Our top priority is to strengthen sales and our target of a 10% operating margin for full-year 2024 thus remains in place,” Erver said.