H&M: An Introduction

H&M is a leading fashion company that deals in the business of selling home textiles, cosmetics, footwear, accessories, and clothing. Its brands includes COS, H&M Home, Monki, Cheap Monday and Weekday. COS comprises of online shopping in Europe along with fifty brick and mortar stores, and designs and sells a various fashions for men and women. The weekday deals in its own products which include Weekday STOREMADE and MTWTFSS Weekday. The Company also collaborates with other independent fashion companies like Bless and Bruno Pieters, and Carin Wester. The Cheap Monday deals in denim collections for all age groups along with shoes, underwear, glasses and accessories. Monki deals with graphic design clothing for young women. The H&M Home deal with fashion for all rooms in the hose in the form of towels, curtains, bed linens, and other forms of home textiles. The company’s headquarters are in Stockholm Sweden and was formed in 1947[1].

H&M has been a leading fashion company for some time now. The company has a market capitalization of $70.86 billion and made total sales of $20.28 billion in 2013[2]. The company is ranked 31^st on Forbes’ World’s most valuable brands, 74^th in the most innovative company category and position 449 in global 2000. H&M went public on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1974. Prior to 1968, the company primarily dealt in women clothing and was initially called Hennes. The company diversified to other products and market segments[3].

In the 1950s, the company expanded to other countries especially in Europe. In the 1980s, while the company continued its expansion in Europe, it bought Rowells, a company that deals with mail order with the intention of initiating catalogue sales[4].  The company opened its first US store in 2000 in New York. The company began a major expansion of catalogue and online sales. However, the company limited its online sales to European companies.  The company started expanding into the Asian market by opening the first stores in Shanghai and Hong Kong[5].

The company initiated its first famous advertisements in 1998. It got into its first designer collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director at Chanel. The success that originated from this collaboration motivated H&M to collaborate with a variety of other celebrities and designers including David Beckham, Versace, Jimmy Choo, Stella McCartney and Madonna among others. The company has adopted designer collaboration into its annual cycle of merchandise development.

By end year 2011, the company had a total of over 2500 stores and more than 80,000 employees. In 2012, the company was position 58 in the retail industry and thirst in the footwear or designer specialty category measured on the basis of retail sales. The company outsources its production to about 700 independent manufacturers through its local offices in Asia and Europe. Plans are underway to expand the company by opening stores in Mexico, Malaysia, Latvia, and Bulgaria and franchises in Thailand. The company also intends to initiate online retailing in the US. The company also intends to explore the market of luxury market.

In 2002, the company opened the Maison Martin Margiela for H&M collection which deals in the more successful products by reproducing and improving them.  The collection features a variety of products which covers products that have been produced by the company over a period of 24 years.

References

Brennan, B, M Bahree, Z Greenburg, B Thau, P Rosenblum, & S Boyd et al., ‘H&M on the Forbes World’s Most Valuable Brands List’. in Forbes, , 2014, <http://www.forbes.com/companies/hm/> [accessed 12 November 2014].

H&M, ‘H&M Group: About US’. in , , 2014, <http://about.hm.com/en/About/facts-about-hm/about-hm/hm-group.html> [accessed 12 November 2014].

Innovation Leaders, ‘H&M | Company Profile’. in , , 2014, <http://innovationleaders.org/hm_company_profile.html> [accessed 12 November 2014].

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[1] B Brennan et al., ‘H&M on the Forbes World’s Most Valuable Brands List’, in Forbes, , 2014, <http://www.forbes.com/companies/hm/> [accessed 12 November 2014].

[2] H&M, ‘H&M Group: About US’, in , , 2014, <http://about.hm.com/en/About/facts-about-hm/about-hm/hm-group.html> [accessed 12 November 2014].

[3] B Brennan et al

[4] Innovation Leaders, ‘H&M | Company Profile’, in , , 2014, <http://innovationleaders.org/hm_company_profile.html> [accessed 12 November 2014]., ‘H&M | Company Profile’, in , , 2014, <http://innovationleaders.org/hm_company_profile.html> [accessed 12 November 2014].

[5] Innovation Leaders