HM April sales rise on Madonna range and warmer weather

Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe’s second- largest clothes retailer, said sales rose 8 percent in April as warmer weather and a line designed with Madonna drew shoppers, Bloomberg reports.

“The figures are quite good,” said Luca Solca, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in London. “We expected the positive impact from warm April weather and the Madonna collection.” Solca rates the shares “market perform.”

Maintaining the momentum from the Madonna line, which fueled sales growth for two months running, may be a challenge for the company, said Solca. Future months may see “quite a lot of volatility, depending on” future clothes collections, he said.

From an article by Meera Bhatia in Oslo at Bloomberg.