H&M plans to close 250 stores as pandemic drives sales online

Net profit for the period June to August came in at 1.8 billion Swedish kronor ($201 million, 172 million euros), compared to 3.9 billion kronor for the same period a year earlier.

Revenue fell 18.7 percent to 51 billion kronor.

Pre-tax profit came in at 2.4 billion kronor, an improvement over the 2.0 billion kronor reported in preliminary results published in mid-September.

“Our recovery is going better than expected… With more full-price sales than expected and strict cost control, we returned to profit already in the third quarter,” Helena Helmersson, CEO of H&M, said in a statement.

Fashion retailers, especially fast-fashion brands like H&M, have been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic.

In mid-April, the Scandinavian company temporarily closed around 80 percent of its stores worldwide.

Currently, three percent, or 166 shops, remain shut.

In its second quarter H&M posted a net loss of some five billion kronor, compared to a net profit of 4.6 billion a year earlier while revenue halved to 28.7 billion kronor.

In 2021, H&M, which has around 5,000 shops worldwide, expects it will need to cut about 250.