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Net sales were up 8% year on year at 56.8 billion crowns ($6.22 billion) in the period, H&M’s fiscal fourth quarter, matching the mean forecast in a Refinitiv poll of analysts.
Measured in local currencies, sales were up 11%.
“Despite continued restrictions and the negative consequences of the pandemic, the H&M group’s sales in local currencies were back at the same level as in the fourth quarter of 2019,” the company said in a statement.
“Customers are showing that they appreciate the collections and being able to shop where, when and how they choose,” it said.
Net sales in Swedish crowns still lagged pre-pandemic levels. Two years earlier, they stood at 61.7 billion crowns.
At the end of November, around 115 H&M stores were temporarily closed due to restrictions, mainly in Austria and Slovakia. At the start of the quarter, about 100 had been closed, mainly in southeast Asia.
H&M warned on Sept. 30 that sales growth in September was held back by global supply chain disruptions but did not mention the issue in Wednesday’s statement.
In the May-July period, its sales jumped from a year earlier as the effects of the pandemic waned but they stayed below pre-pandemic levels. Profits returned to above pre-pandemic levels.’
H&M is due to publish its full fourth-quarter earnings report on Jan. 28.
H&M’s biggest rival Inditex (MC:ITX), the owner of Zara, reported on Wednesday record quarterly sales in the three months through October, rising above pre-pandemic levels for a second straight quarter.
($1 = 9.1339 Swedish crowns)
