H&M

**Hennes & Mauritz AB** (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈhɛ̂nːɛs ɔ ˈmǎʊrɪts]; **H&M** [ˈhôːɛm]) is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. As of November 2019, H&M operates in 74 countries with over 5,000 stores under the various company brands, with 126,000 full-time equivalent positions. It is the second-largest global clothing retailer, behind Spain-based Inditex (parent company of Zara). Founded by Erling Persson and run by his son Stefan Persson and Helena Helmersson, the company makes its online shopping available in 33 countries.

## History

The company was founded by Erling Persson in 1947, when he opened his first shop in Västerås, Sweden. The shop, called Hennes (Swedish for "hers"), exclusively sold women's clothing. A store was opened in Norway in 1964. In 1968, Persson acquired the hunting apparel retailer Mauritz Widforss, which led to the inclusion of a menswear collection in the product range and the name change to Hennes & Mauritz.

The company was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1974. Shortly after, in 1976, the first store outside Scandinavia opened in London. H&M continued to expand in Europe and began to retail online in 1998 when bought the domain *hm.com* from a company called A1 in a non-published domain transaction. The two-letter domain was registered in the early 1990s, but data on the first registration is lost. The opening of its first U.S. store on 31 March 2000, on Fifth Avenue in New York City marked the start of the expansion outside of Europe.

In 2008, the company announced in a press release that it would begin selling home furnishings. Initially distributed through the company's online catalog, there are now H&M Home stores located internationally. Following expansion in Asia and the Middle East and the launch of concept stores including COS, Weekday, Monki, and Cheap Monday, in 2009 and 2010, branding consultancy Interbrand ranked the company as the twenty-first most-valuable global brand, making it the highest-ranked retailer in the survey. Its worth was estimated at $12–16 billion.

H&M operated 2,325 stores at the end of 2011, and 2,629 stores at the end of August 2012. Its 3,000th store opened in September 2013 in Chengdu, China.

## Concept stores

In addition to the H&M brand, the company consists of five individual brands with separate concepts. Q4 2016 saw the hoarding of a new H&M concept in The Dubai Mall come up, labelled 'H&M Details'.

### COS

COS launched its flagship store on London's Regent Street in March 2007 with a catwalk show at the Royal Academy. Its concept is encompassed by minimalist style inspired by architecture, graphics, and design. It specialises in modern clothing pieces for men and women that are less trend-oriented than other similarly priced labels. COS makes clothing that can be worn beyond the season. COS has 197 stores in 34 countries in Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and the Middle East and currently retails online to 19 markets via *cosstores.com*.

### & Other Stories

& Other Stories launched in Spring 2013, with seven stores opening throughout Europe. Its Regent Street store opened on 8 March 2013, with other locations in Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Milan, Paris and Stockholm. & Other Stories offers women's clothing, shoes, bags, accessories, and beauty products, with a focus on high quality throughout a wide price range. In March 2016, it collaborated with the designer label Rodarte. & Other Stories has 46 stores in 12 countries, as well as e-commerce in 14 at *stories.com* (formerly at *otherstories.com*).

### ARKET

The first ARKET store was opened in Regent Street in August 2017, having been in preparations since June 2015. The brand is labeled "a modern-day market" and houses a line known as the "archive", in which each item is known by a nine-digit code organised into department, category, product, and material. ARKET also sells children's clothing and homewares, and has an in-store café.

### FaBric Scandinavien AB

In 2008, H&M purchased 60 percent of shares in the Swedish fashion company FaBric Scandinavien AB and bought the remaining shares in 2010 with a price totaling SEK552 million ($62.3 million). The company's three brands- Cheap Monday, Monki, and Weekday- continue to be run as separate concepts.

### Cheap Monday

Cheap Monday, known for its distinctive skull logo, is a full fashion brand launched in 2004. The brand is available from many retailers worldwide as well as its own stores and e-commerce site *cheapmonday.com*.

### Monki

Monki is "a wild and crazy international retail concept that believes that it needs to fight ordinary and boost imagination with an experience out of the ordinary". The brand sells fashion for young women in stores in 13 markets and is available online in 18 markets at *monki.com*.

### Weekday

Weekday, styled as WEEKDAY, 'carries in-house brands such as MTWTFSS WEEKDAY and Weekday Collection as well as external brands. The brand has stores in 9 markets and is available online in 18 markets at *weekday.com* and in 140 markets at *ASOS.com*.