STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish DIY and homewares firm Clas Ohlson said on Friday it would reach its profitability target in its fiscal year through April as sales remained robust in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The budget retailer, which sells a wide range of products from cleaning supplies to home electronics, said in April demand had risen for products such as kitchen machines, food jars, arts and crafts kits and headsets as people spent more time at home.
The firm, which does the bulk of business in Sweden and Norway where stores have remained open throughout the pandemic, said April sales were up 2% from a year earlier in comparable outlets, measured in local currencies. Online growth was 61%.
In the February-April quarter, local-currency comparable sales were unchanged. Full-year sales were 8.76 billion crowns ($894 million), up 1% in local currencies in comparable units.
“We have adapted both our offering and operations to the prevailing circumstances,” Chief Executive Lotta Lyra said in a statement. “These actions are generating results and we will achieve our target of an operating margin of 4-6% for the current 2019/20 financial year.”
Clas Ohlson will publish its full year-end report on June 3.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard)
