Stockmann sees July sales fall 9.7%, decline in H1 sales

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Aug 12, 2016

Stockmann, the Finnish fashion and department store, said July sales fell 9.7% to €88m in continuing product areas and businesses.

Retail sales in continuing areas and businesses were down by 13.8%, and sales in Finland fell 15.3%. The renewal works at the department store in Helsinki city centre affected the sales negatively. These will continue all summer. Fashion chain Lindex' sales were down 7.1%, due to a lower number of visitors and exceptionally strong sales in the previous year.

The retailer also released figures for the Q2 and H1 period. In the second quarter of the year, consolidated revenue was up to €352.7m from €351m the previous year. The operating result was €11.1m, up from €-4.1m in the previous year. Lindex achieved its all-time high second quarter revenue and result: operating profit up €9.5m, to €28.1m.

Consolidated revenue for H1 was €625.9m, down from €696.8m. Revenue in continuing product areas and businesses was down by 1.8%. Stockmann now expects the Group's revenue for 2016 to be down on 2015 due to ongoing strategic actions in order to improve profitability. The adjusted operating result is expected to be slightly positive in 2016.

Interim CEO Lauri Veijalainen said: "Stockmann is continuing its persistent actions to implement the comprehensive turnaround of its retail business. The operating result for the second quarter was back to profit and improved by EUR 15.3 million compared to the previous year. Especially pleasing is that Lindex reached its best ever second quarter result by improving its operating profit by EUR 9.5 million. Lindex's performance, together with the earlier divestments of non-core businesses resulted in a good improvement in the Group's earnings. In fact, this was the fifth consecutive quarter when the Stockmann Group's operating result improved."