H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) (HM_B) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and a warm welcome to everyone. Today we present the second quarter results for 2026 for the H&M Group. My name is Josef Ahlberg and I'm head of investor relations. Before I hand over to our CEO Daniel Erviger, let me briefly outline today's agenda. As per usual, Daniel will start by sharing a short summary of our results. Our CFO, Adam Karlsson, will then provide a more detailed financial review. And after that, Daniel will walk you through selected highlights from the quarter and provide a brief outlook. We will end with a Q&A session where Daniel, Adam and I will be available to answer your questions. And with that, please welcome Daniel. Good morning everyone and a warm welcome to those of you who are joining us online but also those who are joining us here in the room on this beautiful summer morning in Stockholm. Before we start I just want to take the opportunity to recognize that I think all of us woke up this morning to the news from Venezuela and we have spoken to our teams on site and we are PLEASED TO HEAR THAT NO WE HAD NO CASUALTIES AND NO INJURIES AND WE WERE ABLE TO EVACUATE OUR STORE ON TIME BUT BEYOND THAT OUR THOUGHTS ARE OF COURSE WITH THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE AT THIS POINT IN TIME SHIFTING THEN THE FOCUS BACK TO H&M AND TO THE FIRST HALF YEAR OUR CONTINUED LONG-TERM WORK DEVELOPED A SOLID PROFIT DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE FIRST HALF YEAR AND LOOKING AT THE SECOND QUARTER SPECIFICALLY WE CAN SEE THAT WE DELIVERED A 12% profit margin, excluding the one-time costs that we speak about in the report. The improved profitability comes from improved gross margin. It comes from strong operational efficiency throughout the organization, and it comes through very solid cost control throughout our different markets around the globe. We can see that th...