retail trade
Fashion chains Inditex and H&M are recovering from the corona shock
The logo of the fashion chain H&M stands above a branch in downtown Nuremberg. Photo: Daniel Karmann / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
2020 was a particularly shocking year for retailers. The industry giants Inditex and H&M are now recovering – albeit at different speeds.
The two largest European fashion retail groups Inditex and H&M are on a recovery course after the corona shock last year.
Inditex, the Spanish mother of chains such as Zara and Massimo Dutti, achieved more sales than ever in a third quarter of business between August and October, according to Wednesday.
In addition, the group started the important Christmas quarter with significant growth: Between November 1 and December 10, sales adjusted for currency effects rose by a third compared to the same period of the previous year. Compared to 2019, this was an increase of ten percent. According to its own information, the Stockholm-based H&M group has reached the level of the pre-crisis year 2019 in terms of sales. He is developing weaker than his rival.
Good plus – and records
At Inditex, sales in the third quarter of the business year were just under 7.4 billion euros, around a fifth above the previous year’s figure. Compared to the third quarter of the 2019/2020 pre-crisis financial year, this means an increase of around six percent. The operating profit rose by around a fifth to 2.3 billion euros. The bottom line was a profit of around 1.23 billion euros. Inditex set records for both values. Online trading is growing rapidly: Here the company was able to more than double its sales compared to the time before the pandemic. In this financial year, the share of online sales in total sales is expected to increase to more than a quarter.
At H&M, total sales rose in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020/21 (as of November 30) by eight percent on an annualized basis to 57 billion Swedish kronor (5.5 billion euros), as the group announced. For the year as a whole, sales rose by six percent to the equivalent of 19.4 billion euros.
In addition to the slower recovery in sales, H&M has significantly higher inventory levels than its Spanish competitor. H&M boss Helena Helmersson has been working to reduce this for some time. Corona requirements cause problems again and again. Around 100 stores were closed at the beginning of the fourth quarter, mainly in Southeast Asia. At the end of the quarter there were 115 branches – this time mainly in Austria and Slovakia.