The Christmas sales – one of the year's absolutely most important sales periods – has now begun for the retail chain Clas Ohlson. CEO Kristofer Tonström can conclude that both the reaperiod Black Week and the start of the Christmas sales now show a strong result.
For our part, Black Week and Black Friday are not the big "drivers" for us, but it's the Christmas sales. However, we have seen a fantastically strong November, he says about the sales in connection with the latest quarterly figures being released.
Result improvement for the company
For the company, the operating result was 307 million kronor, an improvement compared to last year's 245 million kronor, while the net sales increased to 2.8 billion kronor. CEO Kristofer Tonström sees a certain changed customer behavior as households are no longer struggling with the same high interest rates and inflation pressure as, for example, last year.
Generally, one can say that it has become more positive. At the same time, the real economy for many of our customers has not really changed yet, and they are still experiencing economic strain.
Playing on different terms
In connection with this, Chinese e-commerce sites like Temu have also grown significantly. With aggressive advertising campaigns and low prices, they have established themselves in Sweden, something that has been questioned by the Swedish Trade Federation, among others. Kristofer Tonström shares the trade organization's view but is diplomatic in his response regarding the threat from Temu:
We can also conclude that they have a broad range of products but do not always play on the same terms as we do.
How big of a threat are they to you?
Ever since they entered the Swedish market, we have had continued very fine organic growth at Clas Ohlson. What we are trying to do is to have the best products and follow all local regulations and make our business model more and more sustainable.
Tobias Österberg/TT
Facts: Clas Ohlson's interim report
TT
Retail chain Clas Ohlson reports an operating result of 307 million kronor for the broken fiscal year's second quarter. During the corresponding quarter a year earlier, the profit was 245 million kronor.
Net sales increased to 2.8 billion kronor, up from 2.5 billion.
The average forecast for sales was 2.8 billion kronor in the second quarter, according to Bloomberg. The operating profit was expected to land at around 310 million kronor.
