SOURCE / COMPANIES
Cool spring chills H&M profits
Published: Jun 22, 2016 10:23 PM
Swedish fashion brand Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) said Wednesday an unusually cool European spring kept shoppers away, depressing profits in the three months to May.

Net earnings fell 17 percent to 5.36 billion kronor ($648 million) in the second quarter of the company's fiscal year, as a strong dollar added a layer to its problems, which also included low sales prices and high investment costs.

"The sales increase in March and April was significantly below our plan. These two months were negatively affected by cold spring weather in many of our markets," H&M Chief Executive Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement.

This mostly affected big European markets Germany, Britain and France.