Swedish fashion giant H&M racked up sales of €4.51 million in the three months after its first Irish outlet opened earlier this year at Dundrum Shopping Centre in south Dublin, the group said yesterday.

More evidence of the retail boom emerged when the British-owned electrical goods retailer Dixons said that operating profits in its 15 Irish stores grew to €3.66 million in the year to the end of April from €2.05 million.

H&M opened a three-floor 2,200 square-foot outlet in Dundrum on March 2nd, selling women's, mens' and children's clothes. It plans to open three more Irish stores this year. The biggest will be on Mary Street in Dublin, where an outlet will be a major feature of the Ilac Centre redevelopment. The others will be at the Liffey Valley centre, west Dublin, and the new Crescent Centre in Limerick.

In half-year results for the period to the end of May the group's parent, Hennes & Mauritz, said that its Irish sales of €4.51 million included value added tax. The VAT on clothes is 21 per cent, although the tax is not levied on childrens' clothes.

Dixons, whose parent group is changing its name to DGS International, said that sales net of taxes at its 15 Dixons, Currys and PC World outlets in Ireland grew to €117.07 million from €105.36 million. The group last week opened a new PC World store at the Airfield centre, north Dublin.

While an 8 per cent fall in pretax profits at the group's parent to £336.8 million reflected difficult conditions in the British market, the group's operating profit margins in Ireland rose to 3.125 per cent from 1.944 per cent.

With new products such as MP3 players and big US-style fridges performing well, there was strong demand for digital cameras, wireless networking equipment, flat panel televisions, iPods and laptop computers. "There's an interesting move by customers away from cheap white goods," said the general manager of the Irish business, Declan Ronayne.