H&M’s March sales tumble 46per cent as pandemic hits, sees Q2 loss

H&M , the world’s second-biggest clothing retailer, reported on Friday a 46per cent plunge in March sales as the coronavirus pandemic took its toll and said it expected to run a loss in its fiscal second quarter.

(Reuters) – H&M , the world’s second-biggest clothing retailer, reported on Friday a 46% plunge in March sales as the coronavirus pandemic took its toll and said it expected to run a loss in its fiscal second quarter.

“The second quarter will naturally be very negatively impacted by the corona situation and will therefore be loss-making,” the Swedish group said.

Fiscal first-quarter pretax profit more than doubled to 2.50 billion crowns (US$247.6 million) from a year-ago 1.04 billion.

Six analysts polled between March 17 and March 26 had on average expected a rise to 1.47 billion crowns, according to Refinitiv data.