By Andrea Figueras
H&M Hennes & Mauritz said it has promoted the head of its core brand, Daniel Erver, to chief executive officer and president.
He will succeed Helena Helmersson, who has decided to step down after 26 years at the company and four years as CEO, the Swedish fashion retailer said Wednesday.
Erver, who has worked for 18 years at the company, takes over as CEO with immediate effect. He will retain responsibility for the H&M brand and no successor will be appointed, the company said.
Meanwhile, the fashion retailer said that group sales from Dec. 1 to Jan. 29 decreased by 4% in local currencies, compared with the same period the previous year.
“The company monitors developments in the Red Sea day by day and act to minimize impact on the company’s product availability, freight costs and stock level,” it said.
Negative effects from price reductions on sales in the first quarter are expected to increase by 1 percentage point compared with the year-ago period, it said. This is due to the late arrival of normal fall weather in the fourth quarter, which left a relatively brief window of time to sell the fall assortment, the company said.
H&M also said that it swung to a net profit of 1.59 billion Swedish kronor ($152.7 million) for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Nov. 30 from a net loss of SEK864 million in the year-earlier period. However, analysts had forecast a net profit of SEK3.19 billion for the period, according to a FactSet-compiled poll of estimates.
Profit a year earlier was hurt by higher costs and the wind-down of its profitable business in Russia, after it decided to exit the country due to the war in Ukraine.
Sales for the quarter were flat on year at SEK62.65 billion, up from SEK60.90 billion in the third quarter but missing analysts’ forecasts of SEK62.9 billion, according to a FactSet data.
H&M backed its target for fiscal 2024 of a 10% operating margin and said it expects profitability to exceed this over time.
It also said that a 10% to 15% increase in sales a year with continued high profitability remains a long-term target.
The retailer said it will maintain its dividend of SEK6.50 at share.
Write to Andrea Figueras at [email protected]
Corrections & Amplifications
This article was corrected at 0940 GMT. The original version misstated the third quarter sales figure as SEK62.63 billion. It is SEK60.90 billion.
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