Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) Overview
H&M is a global fashion company, which opened in Västerås in Sweden in 1947 by Erling Persson, that sells quality and affordable clothes for women, men, teenagers and children complete with shoes, accessories, cosmetics and a home interiors concept. H&M exists in 43 countries and as of 2011 employed around 94,000 people. 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. In 2012, sales including VAT were SEK 140,948 million and the number of employees more than 104,000.