H&M sales fall 57% year-on-year in March through early May

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish fashion retailer H&M said on Thursday its sales tumbled 57% from a year ago in local currencies during the March 1 to May 6 period as the novel coronavirus pandemic and restrictions to curb it kept most of its stores closed.

“From the end of April onwards the H&M group started gradually reopening stores in a number of markets,” it said in a statement. “In those markets that have begun to open up, trade in the stores has initially been muted.”

Online sales alone grew 32% in the same period, it said.

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard, editing by Helena Soderpalm)