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H&M Fourth-quarter Sales Disappoint Due to Late Black Friday

FILE PHOTO: The logo of fashion retailer H&M is on display outside a store in Stockholm, Sweden, July 17, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of fashion retailer H&M is on display outside a store in Stockholm, Sweden, July 17, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
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H&M Fourth-quarter Sales Disappoint Due to Late Black Friday

FILE PHOTO: The logo of fashion retailer H&M is on display outside a store in Stockholm, Sweden, July 17, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The logo of fashion retailer H&M is on display outside a store in Stockholm, Sweden, July 17, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo

Swedish fast-fashion retailer H&M reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter sales on Thursday due in part to a late Black Friday, but said sales were up 4% in December and January, indicating a better start to the new fiscal year.
H&M's sales in the fourth quarter to Nov. 30 were 62.19 billion Swedish crowns ($5.65 billion), up 3% in local currencies, a weaker performance than analysts' mean forecast of 63.48 billion Swedish crowns.
H&M shares fell 4.5% at the market open, Reuters reported.
Black Friday was on Nov. 29 last year, and H&M said more of its sales around that key discounting day were reported as revenues in December, hitting quarterly sales by just under 1%. Operating profit margin for the quarter was 7.4%, up from 6.9% a year before, as CEO Daniel Erver, who took over a year ago, said investments in marketing were starting to pay off.
"Strong online sales together with improved product presentation and a more inspiring shopping experience, well-received womenswear collections and effective cost control all contributed to a positive development in the quarter," Erver said in a statement.
In a push to make the H&M brand trendier, Erver has hiked marketing spending and hired pop star Charli XCX to model H&M's autumn collection and to perform at free gigs attended by thousands during London Fashion Week and in New York's Times Square.
But analysts said H&M still had work to do to turn its performance around.
"H&M's Q4 results, albeit calendar impacted, confirm that the step up in marketing efforts is not having an especially significant impact on market share trends," Jefferies analysts said in a note.
H&M said it took a 200 million crown hit to operating profit due to winding down costs as it folds its Monki brand into Weekday to streamline operations. The move, announced in November, will lead to the closure of most Monki stores.
The group has accelerated its store closures over the past years and focused new store openings on growth markets.
H&M had 4,253 stores across all its brands at the end of the 2024 financial year, 116 fewer than a year ago.

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Fashion

A Nonprofit in France Is Fighting Fast-Fashion Waste, One Sneaker at a Time

Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
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A Nonprofit in France Is Fighting Fast-Fashion Waste, One Sneaker at a Time

Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)
Mohamed Boukhatem, co-founder and director of SneakCoeurZ, a nonprofit organization giving used footwear a second life, poses in Champs-sur-Marne, east of Paris, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP)

Hundreds of used sneakers arrive each week at a workshop east of Paris, where workers inspect them and ask a simple question: Can a shoe be saved?

The nonprofit SneakCœurZ is in the business of sorting the shoes to check which ones can be resold or redistributed, and which have to be rejected. It says it collected 30,000 pairs of used sneakers last year and resold 2,000 pairs, and wants to scale up that process.

“Today, there is no project of this scale in the sneaker sector,” said Mohamed Boukhatem, the organization's director general and co-founder. “We are the only ones able to industrialize both the processes and the collection of sneakers for reuse.”

The group's work underscores a growing waste problem in France, where the capital Paris is long one of the world’s fashion and luxury hubs.

The stakes are huge: the textile industry is among the world’s most polluting, and the fashion and textiles sector accounts for up to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. The European Parliament has said textiles were the third-largest source of water degradation and land use in the European Union in 2020.

Refashion, the French government-approved eco-organization for clothing, household linen and footwear, says 259 million pairs of shoes were sold in France in 2024.

It says only about a third of used textiles and footwear are separately collected, with much of the rest left in cupboards or thrown away with household waste.

At its workshop in Champs-sur-Marne, workers for SneakCœurZ inspect the used shoes and check which can be salvaged.

“The structural elements of the shoe are what determine whether we can refurbish it or not,” workshop manager Paul Defawes Abadie said.

“A damaged Velcro strap isn’t a deal breaker. A lace isn’t a deal breaker. Dirt is never a deal breaker,” he said. “What really matters is the wear of the structural materials, especially the outsole.”

Pairs that make the cut are cleaned from the sole upward, disinfected inside and, in some cases, whitened under UV light before being put back into circulation.

The nonprofit says it redistributed more than 7,000 pairs to people in need and helped create 19 jobs.

“Over the next three years, the goal is to triple or even quadruple these volumes and move to an industrial scale,” Boukhatem said.

France has tried to respond to the issue of fast-fashion waste with law, as well as rhetoric.

Its 2020 anti-waste law requires unsold nonfood goods to be reused, donated or recycled instead of destroyed.

Authorities introduced a state-backed repair bonus for clothing and shoes in November 2023. Separately, lawmakers are still working on a bill aimed at reducing the textile industry’s environmental impact.

The bill passed the National Assembly in March 2024 and the Senate in June 2025, and the government said in February that it was still aiming for a joint parliamentary committee this spring.

Fashion

H&M's Q1 Profit Grows More Than Expected, Sees March Sales Up 1%

FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
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H&M's Q1 Profit Grows More Than Expected, Sees March Sales Up 1%

FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Swedish flag hangs outside a business on a street of the old city of Stockholm, Sweden, February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo

Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported on Thursday a slightly bigger rise than expected in December-February operating profit, and predicted March sales would be up 1% in local currencies.

"Towards the end of the quarter our well-received spring collections contributed to a positive sales trend, which also continued into March," CEO Daniel Erver said in a statement.

Operating profit in H&M's fiscal first quarter, ⁠which includes the key ⁠Christmas shopping period, rose for a third consecutive quarter to 1.51 billion crowns ($162 million) from a year-earlier 1.20 billion and a mean forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts of 1.39 billion, on an organic sales decrease of 1%.

The rival ⁠to Inditex in January flagged that local-currency sales in the first two months of the quarter were down 2%.

According to Reuters, H&M said it is closely monitoring developments in the Middle East and the implications for global trade.

"With good flexibility in the supply chain and a low proportion of air freight, there are opportunities to adapt the flow of goods to changed conditions," it said. "Middle Eastern markets account for a ⁠small portion ⁠of the company’s total sales and the markets are operated through franchise partners."

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran. Iran has in response launched strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states.

It has attacked vessels and infrastructure throughout the Gulf region and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, hitting global supply chains and causing soaring energy costs, raising concern over war-driven inflation and potential impact on consumer demand.

Fashion

Next Says UK Sales Have Held Up Since Iran War Started

Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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Next Says UK Sales Have Held Up Since Iran War Started

Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Women tour a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, China, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

British clothing retailer Next has not seen a noticeable drop off in UK sales since the US-Israeli war on Iran started at the end of February, its boss said on Thursday.

"Eight weeks, ⁠including the war ⁠weeks, have been good in the UK," CEO Simon Wolfson told Reuters after Next published full-year ⁠results.

He said sales in the Middle East, which account for about 6% of the group's annual turnover, fell "dramatically" in the first few days of the war and demand remains "suppressed.”

Wolfson said if ⁠Next ⁠did have to raise prices around June or July to make up for higher costs caused by the war, the increases would only be 1% to 2%.