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Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) posted nearly two-fold increase in sales in India to 1,179 million Swedish krona (over Rs 955 crore) for the fiscal ended November 2017, thus making the country one of its fastest growing markets.
The company had posted sales of 606 million Swedish krona (around Rs 490 crore) in 2016, H&M said in its full-year report.
H&M, which follows December-November financial year has also added 15 stores during the period in India totaling to a network of 27 stores.
The company said it has also plans to start online sales in India in 2018 along with other global markets, including Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
“H&M India sales for the period of December 1, 2016 to November 30, 2017 resulted to SEK 1,179 million, 87 per cent growth to last year in local currency. H&M India currently operates 29 stores across the country,” the company said in a statement.
For quarter of 2017, (September-November), H&M reported 24 per cent growth in sales to 305 million krona (Rs 247 crore) as against 245 million krona (Rs 198 crore).
On its plans for online expansion in new markets, H&M said it “will continue in 2018 to among others India and via franchise partners to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The plan for the future is to offer e-commerce in all store markets as well as in other markets”.
H&M is also going to enter into new territories -- Uruguay and Ukraine.
For the 2017, H&M reported growth of 4 per cent in the group sales to SEK 232 Billion.
“The fashion industry is changing fast. At the heart of the transformation is digitalisation and it is driving the need to transform and re-think faster and faster,” said H&M CEO Karl Johan Persson.
He further said: “This is presenting many challenges but we believe we are well placed to adjust to the new dynamics and take advantage of the opportunities in front of us.”
In 2017, H&M added 388 new stores in its network totaling to 4,739 in 69 markets. Besides, it had presence in 43 online markets.
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