Sales in September decreased by 8 per cent to 629 MSEK (681). Organic sales decreased by 3 per cent compared to the previous year. Sales in comparable units and local currency decreased by 3 per cent compared to the previous year. Compared to September last year, more trading days resulted in a positive calendar effect of approximately 2 percentage points. Online sales decreased by 6 per cent to 42 MSEK (45). Compared to the same month last year, the store network was reduced by three stores. At the end of the period the total number of stores was 228 (231).
|
Distribution of sales |
Month | Accumulated | ||||
| September | Change | May-September | Change | |||
| MSEK | 2020/21 | SEK | Organic | 2020/21 | SEK | Organic |
| Sweden | 286 | -7% | -7% | 1,515 | -3% | -3% |
| Norway | 264 | -4% | 7% | 1,469 | 3% | 16% |
| Finland | 75 | -17% | -15% | 385 | -10% | -8% |
| Outside the Nordics* | 4 | -45% | -43% | 22 | -53% | -52% |
| Total | 629 | -8% | -3% | 3,392 | -2% | 3% |
| Of which online | 42 | -6% | -2% | 274 | 42% | 48% |
* Affected by store closures in the UK and Germany.
Total sales for the period May-September 2020 decreased by 2 per cent to 3,392 MSEK (3,465). Organic growth was 3 per cent. Sales in comparable units and local currency increased by 4 per cent. Online sales for the period increased by 42 per cent to 274 MSEK (193).
Lotta Lyrå, President and CEO: After a strong summer, the reduced customer traffic which we have seen since the outbreak of the pandemic during spring, has now had a clear impact on sales. To counterbalance this development, we have put even greater focus on cost control with the goal of maintaining good profitability despite weaker sales.
The decrease in online sales in September should be seen in the light of the fact that we implemented a completely new inventory management system during the period. In order to do this in a controlled manner, and well before the most important sales period of the year, we were restrictive with market investments. Also the temporarily longer delivery times in connection with the system implementation have affected online sales.
For further information, please contact:
Niklas Carlsson, Group Head of Communications, +46 247 444 29, niklas.carlsson@clasohlson.se
This is information that Clas Ohlson AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 7:00 a.m. CET on 15 October 2020.