H&M passes the EUR 100 mln sales mark in Romania in 2013, almost at par with Hungary, Czech Republic, Greece

Swedish retailer H&M posted sales of EUR some 101 million in Romania in its 2013 financial year, up some EUR 72 million on the previous year, according to the company. Its sales in local currency went up by some 42 percent, according to its data. H&M, which had a chain of 28 stores in Romania at the end of November 2013, when its financial year ends, added nine new stores in the country during that year. Based on the 2013 sales, Romania is a medium income market for H&M, whose best performing market was Germany, with EUR 3.5 billion in sales, and a chain of 418 stores. In its home country Sweden, H&M had less than a third of Germany's sales, and 177 stores. Other countries with sales comparable to Romania's for H&M were Turkey, South Korea, Hungary, Greece, the Czech Republic, and Portugal. Neighbor Bulgaria, with 11 H&M stores, out of which seven were added during the 2013 financial year, brought sales of some EUR 30 million. In the fourth quarter of 2013, Romania brought H&M some EUR 31 million in sales, up from the same quarter of the previous financial year. The retailer managed to up its worldwide sales by 6 percent in SEK, and by 9 percent in local currencies, to some EUR 17 billion including VAT. During this period, its profit after tax was of around EUR 1.9 billion at today's exchange rate. editor@romania-insider.com