Sales of KappAhl have slumped by 3.3 per cent in Q3 due to a decrease in the women’s wear turnover. KappAhl is a leading fashion chain in the Nordic region with 380 KappAhl and Newbie stores, including Shop Online, in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland and UK. Notably, sales for 2017/2018 totaled SEK 4.8 billion and the company has approximately 4,000 employees in ten countries. For Q3 (March-May), net sales of the brand was SEK 1,200 million compared to SEK 1,242 million achieved during the same period of last fiscal. Similarly the gross margin was down by 3.7 per cent for third quarter and profit after tax too saw a huge fall as it was SEK 6 million compared to SEK 94 million.
It is pertinent to mention here that selling and administrative expenses increased for the quarter, SEK 724 million compared to SEK 680 million.
Inventories at the end of the period were SEK 801 million while in the same quarter of last fiscal it was SEK 692 million. The company claims that the increase in inventories compared with the same period in the previous year is due to poorer sales in the quarter compared with the previous year and to a higher dollar exchange rate, but mainly consists of summer goods that are still in season.
