Clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB reported fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates and said it would hire at last 6,000 people for its clothing shops in 2009, maintaining expansion plans after weak Christmas sales.
The company opened its first Irish store in Dundrum in 2005 and now has a total of seven.
Net income rose to 5.09 billion kronor ($630 million) in the three months ended November, from 4.65 billion kronor a year earlier, the Stockholm-based company said today.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg anticipated a profit of 4.89 billion-kronor. Sales in the quarter rose 15 percent to 26.3 billion kronor.
H&M said its growth prospects remain intact as the company pushes into China and Russia this year. H&M plans to add 225 outlets this year and introduce a line of home decoration items such as pillows and curtains. Expansion in Japan exceeded expectations, H&M said, and the company may add as many as 7,000 this year.
“They are in the right segment, the low-priced segment,” said Sydbank A/S analyst Soeren Loentoft Hansen in an interview today.
“Consumers are shopping down and H&M is taking market share. It’s a very strong report from H&M, and looking at their expansion strategy, planning to open 225 stores, this is a very strong signal.”
Hennes & Mauritz fell as much as 8 kronor, or 2.5 per cent, to 313.50 kronor in Stockholm and traded at 314.50 kronor as of 9.40am local time.
The retailer is Sweden’s largest company by market value, a title it took from Ericsson AB in late 2007.
Total sales for December rose 3 per cent in local currencies, trailing an estimate of 9.1 per cent growth by SME Direkt.
Bloomberg