H&M hopes online offering and new brands will help boost sales in 'challenging' 2018

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Holly Williams

High street fashion giant H&M has said it is braced for further sales falls across its stores in 2018, but hopes an online push and investment in new brands will deliver a "somewhat better result" than last year.

In a move to reassure worried investors, H&M said it expects a 25pc surge in sales online and from its new brands such as COS and H&M Home this year, while it expects stores to return to like-for-like sales growth from 2019 onwards.