H&M growth Sees Dip In Revenue, May Lose Space In Malls
H&M growth Sees Dip In Revenue, May Lose Space In Malls

Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) has seen a sales dip worsening every quarter over the past year in India, indicating waning demand for its merchandise even as it opened stores dozens of stores every year.

During the first quarter ended February 2018, H&M India grew 21%, a sharp fall from 188% same period a year ago and more than 100% in the sequential quarters, as per H&M global investor presentations. Last week, the world's second-largest clothing brand said it was stuck with $4.3 billion pile of unsold shirts, dresses, and accessories globally.

Among the stores established last year, sales have been flat or declined by around 20% as the initial euphoria for the brand tapered off and newer stores opened in the vicinity, says executives of half a dozen prominent malls that have revenue-sharing agreement with H&M. “If the fashion anchor you bring in on relaxed terms hoping it will help the mall grow but starts de-growing instead, it is a big concern,” said a top mall executive in Mumbai that has H&M as an anchor store.

Some are working on tweaking store sizes. For instance, DLF, the owner of Mall of India in Noida have asked H&M to slash its store size by a fourth, say sources.

Janne Einola, country manager for H&M in India while denying said, “In the last year with the expansion in tier 2 and 3 markets and subsequent stores in the same city, there are bound to be differences in the sales versus the top malls and cities in the country where we opened in the first year, we see this as a natural expansion phase.”

H&M turned profitable in its first year of operations in India and clocked significantly higher sales than largest rival Zara in its first year in the country. And unlike its Spanish rival that entered India more than seven years ago and now has over 20 outlets, H&M has been far more aggressive opening about 29 stores even as it entered five years later.

Since its first store in October 2015, several marquee malls have been courting the Stockholm based retailer — offering large spaces, about 20-25-year leases and revenue sharing percent of 6%, half compared to other brands. Few malls even paid up front for fit-outs for the stores.

 
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