Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) yesterday reported a quarterly loss and said that it was dedicated to regaining the trust of shoppers in China following a recent backlash there after comments it made last year about Xinjiang region.
The world’s second-biggest fashion retailer has come under fire from consumers and officials in China after an H&M statement from last year resurfaced on social media.
In those comments, H&M had expressed concern over reports of forced labor in the western region of Xinjiang, saying it would no longer source cotton from there.
Photo: Reuters
In a statement alongside quarterly results yesterday, H&M said that its commitment to China remained strong, and it was dedicated to regaining the trust and confidence of customers, colleagues and business partners there.
“By working together with stakeholders and partners, we believe we can take steps in our joint efforts to develop the fashion industry, as well as serve our customers and act in a respectful way,” it said.
The latest statement made no specific mention of Xinjiang.
China is H&M’s fourth-biggest sales market and its biggest sourcing market.
“We have seen brands like Nike and H&M weather similar controversies in the past and maintain relatively strong sales; however, short term we think H&M may see a negative impact on its sales in the large and growing Chinese market,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Richard Chamberlain said in a note.
With many of its shops closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, H&M reported a pretax loss for the December-February period, its fiscal first quarter, of 1.39 billion kronor (US$159 million) against a year-earlier profit of 2.5 billion kronor.
Analysts polled by Refinitiv had on average forecast a loss of 1.41 billion kronor.
Sales from March 1 to Sunday were up 55 percent measured in local currencies.
H&M said that it would not propose a dividend at its annual general meeting, but saw good prospects of one in the second half of the year.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of