H&M CEO Helena Helmersson Steps Down with Immediate Effect to Pursue New Challenges After 26 Years with the Company.

The decision was, according to her own statement, "very difficult," but the past four years as a corporate executive had taken a heavy toll on her. She leaves behind primarily challenges for her successor Daniel Ervér, who has been working for H&M for 18 years.

The outgoing female CEO was handed a difficult start: Shortly after she took over the company's leadership in January 2020, the coronavirus pandemic broke out and she had to close the majority of the more than 5000 H&M stores at that time within a short period.

This task did not become any easier afterwards, among other things due to the decided withdrawal from the Russian market due to sanctions following the war of aggression in Ukraine.

During Helmersson's tenure, the stock price fell by 19 percent while the leading index of the Stockholm Stock Exchange rose by 32 percent in the same period. On Wednesday, the day of her announcement, the H&M stock fell by more than 12 percent.

This was also due to the weak business figures for 2023, which were below expectations. The operating result in the fourth quarter amounted to 4.3 billion kroner (383.6 million euros), while analysts had expected 4.6 billion kroner.

Sales fell by one percent to 62.6 billion kronor. In total, H&M was operating 4,369 stores at the end of November 2020, 96 fewer than in the same period of the previous year. The company plans to close 160 more stores and open 100 new ones by 2024.

Whether the new CEO Daniel Ervér will be able to increase the operating margin to at least ten percent is doubted by experts in Stockholm. It currently stands at 6.9 percent, while the "ambition" to raise it to at least ten percent is articulated in the annual report.

However, this will be a challenge in light of the growing online competition, which H&M faces partly due to its relatively late entry into the online business and competition from brands such as Zara and Uniqlo.

Ervér was most recently responsible for the H&M brand but will now take on responsibility for the entire group, which includes brands such as COS, Monki, Weekday, &Other Stories, Arket, Afound, H&M Home, and Sellpy.

Bloomberg News Agency analysts doubt that the new CEO can get the company back on track. Some even advocate that an external CEO with new ideas would have been the better option.

The fact that the target of a ten percent operating margin is now referred to as an "ambition" gives rise to skepticism, as it seems unlikely that the group will achieve this goal in the current fiscal year.