Week in Review

July 3, 2022

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Week in Review | July 02, 2022

“Value” is becoming the new mantra for brands and retailers as consumer sentiment in most markets continues to slump. More pressure will be felt on both price and on quality.

FINANCE

H&M (Sweden) reported Q2 profit rose 33% year-on-year to $462 million, 23% above analysts forecasts. Net sales increased by 17% to $5, 274.7 million.

Despite inflationary headwinds, H&M has not seen a slowdown in consumer spending.
The group has said that it will raise prices, but will do so carefully.

“In hindsight, nobody really thought people would go back to stores to the extent they have.” – H&M CEO Helena Helmersson told the Financial Times.

Nike (USA) reported Q4 sales fell 1% year-on-year to $12.2 billion. Full year sales rose 5% to $46.7 billion. Net income fell 5% to $1.4 billion in Q4, but rose 6% to $6 billion for the full year.

China sales fell 19%, but the brand is still bullish on the region and is launching China-focused marketing activities to drive sales there.

Kohl’s (USA) has decided to forego selling itself to Franchise Group (USA) or anyone else. This comes after the retailer received bids from 25 prospective buyers. The bid from Franchise Group has initially valued Kohl’s at $8 billion.

“Given the environment and market volatility, the Board determined that it simply was not prudent to continue pursuing a deal.” – Peter Boneparth, chairman of the board

Mulberry (UK) has reinstated dividends after its sales rose 32% to £152.4 million ($184.6 million) in the year to the end of April as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. Pretax profit quadrupled to £21.3 million.

During the year sales in China, a key luxury market, rose 59%. However the new financial year is feeling the pain of lockdowns in May and early June.

Foot Locker (USA) has sold its university team sales business to BSN Sports (USA). Historically, the business segment accounted for less than 1% of the company’s annual consolidated sales, which totaled $9.0 billion in fiscal 2021.

PODCAST

What the New Human-Centric Work Environment Could Be Like

A growing number of companies are trying to offer employees more flexible work environments.

But how can leadership manage to keep teams engaged and productivity up to speed when everyone seems to be working in different places and on different schedules?

And will what worked when people were trying to get through the pandemic crisis still be effective now that it looks like we’re finally heading back to normal?

In this podcast Sophie Wade, an authority on the future of work and author of Empathy Works, talks about providing a human-centric framework to help businesses grow in an era when the way we work is changing.

You’ll learn

Ways to support employees and managers in a hybrid work environment.
Burnout at the employee and leadership levels and what to do about it.
How the new workplace will be more human-centric.

🎧 Listen to the podcast

CONSUMER SENTIMENT

A recent survey by Salesforce revealed that Holiday 2022 could be a very chilly season.

17% of global shoppers (850 million) and 15% of U.S. shoppers (31 million) are unsure if they will buy any gifts this year.
Half of all shoppers will switch brands this holiday due to pricing. This means that 2.5 billion shoppers worldwide could ditch their brand for a lower-priced competitor.