H&M, Next and Primark post strong sales as online-only rivals struggle

The war in the High Street heated up yesterday when fashion giant H&M published its results.

It brushed off the rising cost of living, with sales up a tenth in the three months to the end of November, to £4.9bn.

It came despite fears that shoppers would cut back due to rising food and utility bills.

The Swedish giant is the world’s second largest fashion company, after Zara owner Inditex.

Its brands include Cos, Weekday and Monki, and it became the latest traditional retailer to break through the economic doom and gloom after great results from its Spanish rival.

Inditex’s profit in the first nine months of 2022 rose by a quarter to £3.4 billion. Turnover rose by a fifth to £20bn, also holding up at Next, Primark and Marks and Spencer.

As people have less to spend, competition has accelerated during the holiday season.

And online fast fashion players, who dominated during the lockdown, have lost out to physical stores.

The wheels have come off this year, with Boohoo’s shares falling by two-thirds – and Asos’s by more than three-quarters. Asos crashed to its first loss in 20 years.

And this summer, Boohoo reported its first drop in sales. Other fast fashion sites like I Saw It First and Missguided went out of business due to lower sales and higher costs. Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said Asos and Boohoo were ‘frozen out of the spotlight’.

She said: “The trend now is to check out the latest styles in store before purchasing at the till or later online, so retailers that were already hooked on multi-channel offerings such as H&M, Zara and well-known high street stalwarts Next and House of Fraser show much more resilience.

“M&S has done a brave job keeping cash registers vibrant and virtual baskets filled. Primark still has a winning strategy to draw in the crowd through smart advertising on its social media channels.”

She said strikes at Royal Mail will only add to online retailers’ woes.