Almost exactly 50 years after H&M opened its first British store, the doors on its newest, in Brighton, swung open this week and the Swedish fashion company’s UK boss is determined to keep investing in the nation’s high streets despite its struggles.
In 1976, H&M opened in the brand-new Brent Cross shopping centre, the first American-style out of town mall to grace these shores. Its opening was such an event that the then Prince Charles attended.
The Brighton store, which takes the H&M brand’s total in the UK to 197, is bristling with technology, including handheld scanners on self-service checkouts and a system that can find the exact location of a product in the shop, using radio-frequency tags. Shoppers can still simply try on a dress and buy it at a till – just as in 1976.
“We are fully committed to investing in our physical store portfolio because demand is there,” says Karen O’Rourke, who was born the same year H&M entered her home country and took over as the UK boss of the Swedish firm last year.
“The high street is still very much alive and thriving. Post-pandemic, people are looking for more than just a transaction.”
H&M’s new Brighton store is bristling with technology alongside the traditional racks of clothes. Photograph: H&M
The H&M group was founded by the Swedish entrepreneur Erling Persson in 1947, when he opened a womenswear store in Västerås named Hennes (Swedish for “hers”), inspired by a trip to New York. The group changed its name to Hennes & Mauritz in 1968 when it began selling menswear, and rebranded to its initials in 1974, the year it listed on the Stockholm stock exchange.
The company now has 4,100 stores across 80 countries, with about 230 in the UK once its other brands, such as Cos, & Other Stories, Weekday and Arket, are included.
Physical shops are a key part of the brand’s efforts to fight back against cut-price rivals such as Shein and Temu which are aiming to take a big chunk out of the more traditional players’ sales.
Romeo Beckham in an H&M catwalk show last year during London fashion week, its first catwalk show since 2018.
Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
H&M’s stores host events such as designer tie-ups and special product lines. With almost a quarter of the UK population now signed up to H&M’s loyalty scheme, that creates demand not just for special discounts but first dibs on some products and activities.
O’Rourke says that far from only shopping online, young people want to interact with brands with which they have an affinity.
“This is where the brand comes to life, and this is where transaction meets experience. I think the customer expects more now than just being able to buy [something] and leave the store.”
Loyalty scheme members, for example, were among thousands in the audience during London fashion week in September 2024 when the brand enlisted the Brat star Charli xcx for a 30-minute performance in Stratford.
Then, last September, H&M created its own venue in an office off the Strand in central London for its first catwalk show since 2018, with Romeo Beckham modelling and a performance by the singer Lola Young.
“We still can create queues, we can create hype,” says O’Rourke. “There is a demand for that physical experience and to be part of something that’s happening.”
This spring, the designer Stella McCartney will launch her second collaboration with H&M – 20 years after the first. The tie-up includes an “insights board”, which brings together different voices and perspectives from across the fashion industry to raise awareness of animal welfare and come up with new ideas on sustainability. Such issues are a hot topic among younger shoppers and H&M has tried to tap into this with a handful of stores offering repair services, as well as investments in recycled and recyclable fabrics.
Karen O’Rourke says young people want to interact with brands with which they have an affinity. Photograph: H&M
After Saturday jobs in a chemist and at the Wallis clothing chain, O’Rourke wanted to open her own fashion store. Instead, she is now running almost 200.
double quotation markIt’s not about being the cheapest. It’s about being the best value for moneyKaren O’Rourke
Her first job after studying fashion and textiles at university was working at H&M, creating product displays as a visual merchandise assistant in the Merry Hill store in the West Midlands. In 26 years with the retailer, she has seen the rise of online shopping and tough times for the high street.
While some high-street rivals such as Topshop, Warehouse and Debenhams have gone almost exclusively online, H&M is still up against an ever-evolving set of competitors led by its leading rival Inditex, which owns Zara, and 20 years ago took H&M’s place to become the world’s biggest fashion retailer.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets say H&M’s main brand has moved slightly upmarket with its prices now just above Next in the UK, but still below Asos and Zara, as it has aimed to improve the quality of its items and improve its fashion credentials, partly in response to hefty competition from fast-growing online rivals.
O’Rourke says the answer for H&M lies in making sure it is offering affordable, fashionable and sustainable choices.
“It’s not about being the cheapest. It’s about being the best value for money,” she says.
double quotation markI think the customer is the sort of ultimate, let’s say, CEO, and they will decide what’s rightKaren O’Rourke
“There are things that always shake up this industry, that’s the nature of fashion. It’s ever evolving, it’s ever changing. I’m a firm believer that competition is good, because I think the customer is the sort of ultimate, let’s say, CEO, and they will decide what’s right.”
With fashion now facing competition not just from online sellers but other spending options – from phones to gigs and streaming services – the H&M group has been weeding out less profitable stores with the closure of a net 152 last year, two-thirds of which were its eponymous brand. It has expanded its more upmarket Arket and Cos fascias around the world, while its Monki label is now only sold online.
In the UK, the main H&M brand has opened three new stores in the past year, in Stirling and Northampton as well as Brighton, and updated six, including London’s High Street Kensington, Portsmouth and Lincoln.
O’Rourke admits that high business rates and increased costs of employment “makes it challenging” to operate physical shops in the UK.
“We remain agile … first and foremost, it’s about minimising the impact to our customers and to our colleagues. It’s really about finding ways to be more efficient,” she says. “We’ve been here 50 years. We want to be here for the next 50 years.”