| Type | Publicly traded Aktiebolag (OMX: HM B) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Fashion |
| Founded | Västerås, Sweden (1947 as "Hennes") |
| Headquarters | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Key people | Stefan Persson (Chairman), Karl-Johan Persson (President and CEO) |
| Products | Clothing, cosmetics |
| Revenue | SEK 126.97 billion (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | SEK 24.66 billion (2010)[1] |
| Profit | SEK 18.68 billion (2010)[1] |
| Employees | 59,440 (FTE, 2010 average)[1] |
| Website | www.hm.com |
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (operating as H&M) is a Swedish retail-clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing offerings for women, men, teenagers and children.
It has over 2,300 stores in 43 countries and as of 2011 employed around 87,000 people.[2] It is ranked the second largest global clothing retailer, just behind Spain-based Inditex (parent company of ZARA), and leads over third largest global clothing retailer, United States based GAP Inc.
The design team in the company’s Sweden office controls the steps of production from merchandise planning to establishing specifications, and production is outsourced to approximately 800 factories in Europe and Asia. These facilities are used for horizontal division of labor rather than being integrated.[3]
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The company was established in 1947 by Erling Persson in Västerås, Sweden. At the time it only sold women's clothing and was called Hennes, Swedish for "hers".
In 1968, Persson acquired the premises and inventory of a Stockholm hunting-equipment store, Mauritz Widforss. Included in the inventory was a supply of men's clothing, prompting Persson to expand into menswear. Accordingly, he renamed the store Hennes & Mauritz, later abbreviated to H&M.
Erling's son Stefan became chief executive officer in 1990 and chairman of the board in 1998.
Today, the majority of the clothing is manufactured in Asia [4] including Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Turkey.
Number of stores as of 31 August 2011[5]
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Its first non-Swedish store was opened in Norway in 1964,[8] and from then onwards, the company embarked upon a major expansion program opening many further stores in Europe, including Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The first H&M store to open outside of Scandinavia was in the United Kingdom, in 1976[9]
In the 1990s, its first stores opened in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Spain. In Portugal the first store opened in 2003, in Chiado, Lisboa. The company has continued to expand its business and the company has an extensive network throughout much of Europe. Germany is the company's largest market (with 377 stores as of 2011), followed by the United Kingdom (with 192 stores as of 2011) and then Sweden (with 168 stores as of 2011).[9]
In Europe, online shopping is available in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Austria.
Croatia is the second country that isn't in The European Union where H&M opened their store. On 7 and 14 April 2011, first two stores were opened in Croatia in the exclusive Cvjetni shopping center in Zagreb and in the Arena Centar, near the Zagreb Arena. On 25 August 2011 store was opened in City Center One, Split, on 8 September 2011 store was opened in Zadar and on 15 September 2011 store was opened in City Center One, Zagreb. On 20 October 2011 store was opened in Westgate Shopping City.
On 13 March 2009, the company opened its first location in Russia, in the Metropolis mall in Moscow, near the Moscow Metro Voykovskaya station. On 20 March 2009, it opened a second Russian location in the MEGA Family Shopping Centre in Khimki. On 22 October 2009, a third location opened in the MEGA Family Shopping Centre in Belaya Dacha. On 18 October 2009, a store was opened in Rostokino at the Golden Babylon shopping centre, Europe's largest shopping centre.
The company opened its first Canadian store in March 2004. There are currently fifty-six stores in Canada, including Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec.
As of August 2010, the company had nearly two hundred individual stores in the United States.
It had opened its first U.S. store in New York City, on Fifth Avenue (at 51st Street) in March 2000; there are now nine additional stores in city's Manhattan borough alone.
On 18 March 2010, the company opened its first store in North Carolina at the Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh.
In October 2010, plans were announced for it to open its first Texas location in Dallas.[10] The Dallas store opened 19 August 2011 at the North Park Mall off of 75 in North Dallas. http://www.wfaa.com/news/consumer/H--M-store--128026228.html
The company opened in The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on 5 November 2010.
On 11 November 2010, it opened its first Oregon location at the Pioneer Place in Portland.
In 2011, H&M announced that it would open another locations in the Carolinas in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.[11]
Online Shopping
On 27 January 2011, H&M announced through its official Twitter account that there will be online shopping available to USA customers at the turn of 2011/2012.
The company opened its first Asian store (also the company's first franchise) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2006. It followed with a store in the Salmiya district of Kuwait City, Kuwait.
The first Israeli store was opened in Tel Aviv in 2010, followed by five more stores across the country. More stores are expected to open, mainly in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area.[12]
It expanded into East Asia in March 2007, with its first store opening in Central Hong Kong on 10 March 2007. Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue opened that store where she also exclusively launched her range of swimwear, "H&M loves Kylie".
The first location in Shanghai, China, was opened in 2007.
The first Japanese store was opened in Ginza on 13 September 2008, while a second store was opened in Harajuku in November 2008. Another store was opened in the Shibuya shopping district on 19 September 2009.[13]
On 25 February 2009, the company announced that it had signed an agreement to open its first store in South Korea, located in the Myeongdong district of Seoul, and that it was scheduled to open during Spring 2010.[14]
The company will open the first store in Singapore in Autumn 2011, to be located on Orchard Road.[15]
Although the company as of May 2011 has no stores in Australia, in April 2007, Kylie Minogue teamed up with the company to introduce a swimwear line called, "H&M loves Kylie", featuring a theme of Australia. "When we think of Australia and glamour, we think Kylie, who is such a stylish person," the company's design head Margareta van den Bosch said in a statement.[16] It has been suggested that a barrier to entry into Australia (and other Southern Hemisphere nations) is that these countries seasons are opposite to the Northern Hemisphere.
In 2008, the company used the song "Hang On" by British singer-songwriter Lettie as background music to its UK website. Their fashions have been featured in an interactive fashion art film by Imagine Fashion called Decadent Control. It premiered in March 2011 and stars Roberto Cavalli, Kirsty Hume, Eva Herzigová and Brad Kroenig.
In November 2004, selected company stores offered an exclusive collection by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. The press reported large crowds and that the initial inventories in the larger cities were sold out within an hour,[17] although the clothes were still available in less-fashion-sensitive areas until the company redistributed them to meet with demand.[18]
In November 2005, the company launched a collection by Stella McCartney and, in November 2006, by avant-garde Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf.
In March 2007, it launched another collaboration designed by the pop star Madonna.[19] In June 2007 the company worked with game developers Maxis to create a stuff pack for the latter's The Sims 2 computer game, H&M Fashion Stuff.[20]
In November 2007, the company launched a collection by Italian designer Roberto Cavalli. It was reported that the clothing sold out very quickly. Also in 2007, another design with Kylie Minogue was launched in Shanghai, China.[16] In the fall of 2008 the Japanese company Comme des Garçons was selected as guest designer.
For spring and summer 2009, the British designer Matthew Williamson created two exclusive ranges for the company – the first being a collection of women's clothes released in selected stores. The second collection saw Williamson branch into menswear for the first time, only in selected stores. The second collection also featured swimwear for men and women and was available in every company store worldwide.[21]
On 14 November 2009, the company released a limited-edition diffusion collection by Jimmy Choo featuring shoes and handbags, ranging from £30 to £170 including a range of men's shoes. The collection also included clothing designed by Choo for the first time, many garments made from suede and leather, and was available in 200 stores worldwide, including London's Oxford Circus store.[22] Sonia Rykiel also collaborated with the company, by designing a ladies knitwear and lingerie range that was released in selected company stores on 5 December 2009.
For Fall 2010, the company collaborated with French fashion house Lanvin[23] for its 2010 guest designer.
For Spring/Summer 2011, the company collaborated with fashion blogger Elin Kling, which was available at selected stores only.
In June 2011, H&M announced a collaboration plan with Versace, that was released on November 19. Versace is also planning a Spring collaboration with H&M that will only be available in countries with online sales.[24]
In November 2011, H&M announced a collaboration plan with Marni, to be launched in March 2012. The campaign will be directed by award-winning director Sofia Coppola.[25].
The branding consultancy Interbrand ranked the company as the twenty-first most-valuable global brand in 2009 and 2010,[26] making it the highest-ranked retailer in the survey. Its worth is estimated at $12–16 billion.[27][28]
The full company name Hennes & Mauritz was rebranded to H&M to simplify worldwide perception of the brand.
The company owns the two-letter domain hm.com. The domain was registered in the early 1990s, but data on the first registration is lost. In 1998 Hennes & Mauritz was able to buy the domain hm.com from a company called A1 in a non-published domain transaction.[29]
In a press release, the company announced that it would begin selling home furnishings.[30] As of 2009, it was distributed exclusively by the company's internet catalog, so it is only available in countries where H&M is sold online, such as Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
On 6 January 2010, it was reported that unsold clothing and other items in one New York City store are cut up before being discarded, presumably to prevent resale or use.[31]
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