H&M profits ups

Hundreds of eager shoppers queued through the night to buy H&M's Marni collection this spring, helping the world's second-biggest fashion chain to post a 20 per cent rise in profits to 5.2bn kronor (£473m) for the three months to June. Buoyant sales at the Swedish firm during the quarter rose 15 per cent to 31.7bn kronor from 2575 stores, most of them branches of H&M, but about 200 being COS, Monki, Weekday and Cheap Monday shops. Chief executive Karl-Johan Persson, pictured above, commented: "The spring collections have been well-received by our customers as shown by our increased market share in a fashion retail market that continues to be challenging."

Overnight queues speak volumes for H&M profits