Lower April sales for Clas Ohlson
Sales in April decreased by 9 per cent to 521 MSEK (571). Organic sales decreased by 10 per cent compared to the previous year. Sales in comparable units and local currency decreased by 9 per cent compared to the previous year. Online sales increased by 68 per cent to 104 MSEK (62). Compared to the same month last year the store network was unchanged. At the end of the period the total number of stores was 228 (228).
| Distribution of sales | Month | Accumulated | ||||
| April | Change | May - April | Change | |||
| MSEK | 2020/21 | SEK | Organic | 2020/21 | SEK | Organic |
| Sweden | 254 | -4% | -4% | 3 748 | -6% | -6% |
| Norway | 208 | -17% | -21% | 3 522 | -2% | 7% |
| Finland | 55 | 8% | 16% | 959 | -12% | -9% |
| Outside the Nordics | 5 | -22% | -17% | 56 | -39% | -36% |
| Total | 521 | -9% | -10% | 8 284 | -5% | -1% |
| Of which online | 104 | 68% | 63% | 894 | 60% | 64% |
Total sales for the period May 2020–April 2021 decreased by 5 per cent to 8,284 MSEK (8,758). Organic growth decreased by 1 per cent compared to the previous year. Sales in comparable units and local currency decreased by 1 per cent compared to the previous year. Online sales for the period increased by 60 per cent to 894 MSEK (558).
Kristofer Tonström, President and CEO: The continued restrictions on our trading markets brought challenges in terms of temporarily closed stores and decreased footfall. During the month we had up to 40 Norwegian stores closed which is the leading contributing cause to the decrease of our total sales by 9 per cent.
At the same time, we observed that many customers in the closed Norwegian areas chose to make online orders and pick up the products outside the store, which lead to more expensive handling but contributed to continued strong development of online sales. This is an example of how we have invested in our customer relations and in that way prepared for better market conditions. We are also now increasing our visibility through more marketing and are happy that we have been able to reopen several of the previously closed Norwegian stores from the end of April.
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 May 2021.
Clas Ohlson was founded in 1918 as a mail order business based in Insjön, Dalarna, Sweden. Today, we are a retail company with customers in five markets, approximately 4,500 co-workers, and annual sales of approximately 8.8 billion SEK. Our share is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. A lot has happened since the start in 1918, but one thing has remained the same over the years; that we want to help and inspire people to improve their everyday lives by offering smart, simple, practical solutions at attractive prices. Visit about.clasohlson.com/en to read more about us and our passion for simplifying life in all kinds of homes.