Family business roundup: Inditex, H&M and Remy Cointreau results

Amancio Ortega's Inditex struggled to match last year's growth in the first quarter of its fiscal 2013, H&M's second quarter sales shrank, while Remy Cointreau posted strong results.

Inditex
Inditex, the parent company behind high street fashion chain Zara, posted sluggish growth for the first fiscal quarter of 2013.

The group, founded by Amancio Ortega, said net sales rose 5% to €3.6 billion compared to 15% growth in the same period of 2012. Net profit increased by 2% to €438 million, compared to a 30% jump last year.

Analysts have attributed the slowdown to currency fluctuations as well as the continuing cold weather in Europe, which has impacted sales of spring and summer clothing.

H&M
The Persson family's H&M budget fashion chain has had a difficult second quarter, with sales decreasing by 4% in comparable units to SEK 36.9 billion (€4.3 billion). In the second quarter last year sales grew 15% compared to figures for the previous year.

H&M said the results could be explained by the strengthening of the Swedish krona against the currency of most other countries – it said the sales figure would have been SEK 1.8 billion higher had last year's currency rates still applied.

Remy Cointreau
French spirits company Remy Cointreau, controlled by the Heriard Dubreuil family, posted strong results for the fiscal year ended 31 March.

Sales increased by 16.3% to €1.2 billion, while operating profit rose 18.1% to €245.4 million. It was a second year of double-digit revenue growth for the company – revenues grew 13% in 2012 – and a second year of revenues of over a billion euros.

Remy Cointreau said this strong performance was due to strong growth in Asia and the US.