Sales at Swedish fashion chain H&M rose 14 per cent in November year-on-year, aided by a collection from Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli in stores during the month.
The retailer, one of the world's biggest fashion chains, said sales for comparable stores - outlets open at least a year - were up 1 per cent in November. Analysts had predicted a rise of 14.9 per cent according to the average figure with a median of 15 per cent. Like-for-like sales were seen up 2.8 percent.
Cavalli is one in a long line of catwalk designers, including Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney and Viktor & Rolf, to create one-off collections for H&M. The special collections make up a fraction of sales, but draw shoppers into stores and underscore the retailer's boast of bringing catwalk fashions to the sidewalk. The collection by Cavalli went on sale on November 8th.
Sales over H&M's full financial year, which runs from December to November, were up 17 per cent with like-for-like sales up 5 per cent. In 2006, full-year sales rose 11 per cent with same-store sales 2 per cent higher. The retailer had 1,522 stores open at the end of November against 1,345 a year earlier.