H&M said price cuts and cold weather were to blame for a slump in profits at the start of the year, and warned more discounting would be needed to lift flagging sales at the fashion group.
Pretax profit at the Swedish clothing retailer plunged 61% to 1.26bn Swedish krona (£108m) in the first quarter ending 28 February, after weaker sales in previous months left it with a backlog of clothing to sell.
Karl-Johan Persson, the H&M chief executive, said trading at the start of the year had been tough. “The high level of clearance sales combined with unusually cold winter weather had a negative impact on the sales of the spring garments,” he added.
