Australia has proved a bright spot for Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M, with sales surging more than 50 per cent in a highly-competitive market.
Fresh from Wesfarmers department store boss Guy Russo warning that H&M and its international peers Zara and Uniqlo will "regret making the trip Down Under", H&M has revealed that sales in Australia rose to 449 million Swedish krona ($A71 million) in the   May quarter. 
This is a 61 per cent year-on-year improvement in Australian dollar terms. In the previous   May quarter the clothing accessories, footwear and homewear chain reported Australian sales of 298 million Swedish krona ($A47 million).
The latest Australian results were boosted by the opening of two stores in the quarter, taking its total local store numbers to 13.
Australia is a tiny spot in H&M's empire, which spans more than 4000 stores across 62 countries. The last annual accounts for its Australian subsidiary show it posted $161.9 million in sales in its 2015 financial year and made a profit of $3.83 million, up from $1.48 million the previous year.
International retailers account for only 1 per cent of the nation's combined clothing and department store sales, Macquarie said.
But Spanish retail giant Zara recently reported that sales at its 15 Australian stores soared by 24 per cent to $222 million for the year ended   January 31. Earnings before interest and tax jumped to $23.6 million, from $15.5 million, and full-year profit reached $15.26 million.
As Mr Russo recently noted, H&M, Zara and Japanese chain Uniqlo have been able to avoid the massive discounting offered by most fashion retailers this month.
But he has warned an improvement at his discount department store chain Target would hurt H&M and its international peers.
"H&M, Zara, Uniqlo ... they know how to do volume and fashion and do it with their own brands," Mr Russo said. "The only thing they are not doing right is they are overpriced. If I can clean my model up they will regret making the trip Down Under."
The H&M parent group's half-year results revealed the past six months have been "challenging". It failed to reach its quarterly sales targets, unfavourable weather led to price markdowns, the rise in the US dollar hurt when converted to Swedish krona, and many countries are struggling economically.
"It has been a challenging half-year for fashion in many markets," its CEO Karl-Johan Persson said on Friday. "The fashion retail industry was still characterised by a challenging macroeconomic situation in many countries."
H&M's biggest markets are Germany, the US, UK, France and China.