Not a good nugget related to the strength of the global consumer.
September comps -7% showing a sequential slowdown on both a 1 and 2-year basis. With few exceptions, the trendline since August 2010 has been heading lower. The key here is that H&M is ‘comping the comp’ with relatively lousy numbers. So for all those people who think that after 1-year things must start to get better, they might want to tack on another 10 months to their ‘process’.
In typical UK fashion, disclosure is horrible, so until the mid-November report, all we know is the comp, and don’t know what countries or products are driving the business (or not, for that matter). The interesting thing we always keep in mind with H&M is that its geographic dispersion is simply massive, and sells everything from fast fashion apparel, to high-end Champagne, to cosmetics, and more. In other words, a fairly good barometer of the global consumer.
Here is H&M's sales distribution by country as well as the trends in the top 5 sales volume countries as of the September nine month report.
