Sales in March increased by 4 per cent to 523 MSEK (502). Organic sales increased by 3 per cent compared to the previous year. Sales in comparable units and local currency increased by 4 per cent compared to the previous year. Online sales increased by 101 per cent to 101 MSEK (50). Compared to the same month last year the store network was reduced by 2 stores. At the end of the period the total number of stores was 227 (229).
| Distribution of sales | Month | Accumulated | ||||
| March | Change | May - March | Change | |||
| Mkr | 2020/21 | SEK | Organic | 2020/21 | SEK | Organic |
| Sweden | 256 | 5% | 5% | 3,494 | -6% | -6% |
| Norway | 203 | 5% | 1% | 3,315 | -1% | 9% |
| Finland | 59 | -1% | 6% | 904 | -13% | -10% |
| Outside the Nordics | 5 | -25% | -23% | 51 | -40% | -37% |
| Total | 523 | 4% | 3% | 7,763 | -5% | -1% |
| Of which online | 101 | 101% | 98% | 791 | 59% | 65% |
Total sales for the period May-March 2021 decreased by 5 per cent to 7,763 MSEK (8,188). Organic growth decreased by 1 per cent compared to the previous year. Sales in comparable units and local currency were unchanged. Online sales for the period increased by 59 per cent to 791 MSEK (496).
Kristofer Tonström, President and CEO: Despite challenging conditions on our sales markets, we managed to increase our total March sales by 4 per cent. Online sales continue to show high growth with an increase of 101 per cent compared to the same period last year. Looking into individual markets, Norway has steadily performed positively during the pandemic, however during March we have seen significantly lower sales as a consequence of the prolonged restrictions. During the month we have had up to half of our Norwegian stores closed for visitors. In Sweden and Finland, we have increased our sales during the period with 5 and 6 per cent respectively.
When we look forward, we see that our ability to deliver on our customer promise regardless of circumstances is a precondition to be long term well positioned. Our co-workers are doing a fantastic job every day to make our customers happy and during the period we have chosen to invest both in marketing and in customer experience by staffing up the closed stores to handle the increasing demand for delivering online orders outside the stores.
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 7 April 2021.