H&M stands for Hennes & Mauritz, but it took several years until the final name evolved. The company was founded by Erling Pedersson, who opened his first fashion retail store in 1947 in Västerås, Sweden. At that time, it was called Hennes, which is the Swedish word for "hers". As the name suggests, this retail format specialized in women’s fashion. After acquiring the hunting apparel and equipment retailer Mauritz Wildforss, the company name was changed to Hennes & Mauritz and men’s fashion was included in the product range.
Despite hurdles posed by the pandemic, the H&M Group is continuously growing and counted over 5,000 stores worldwide in 2020. The three countries with the highest number of stores are the United States, China and Germany.
Financial performance
In 2020, the group’s total sales amounted to around 20.16 billion U.S. dollars, roughly a 1.2 billion U.S. dollars were generated in Sweden. This is the highest sales value achieved by the group in the Nordic region. The highest revenue generated in a single country amounted to 4.7 billion U.S. dollars in Germany, ahead of the United States, where the H&M Group gained a total of 2.3 billion U.S. dollars. H&M was one of the many fashion retailers that got hit by the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the apparel and textile industry. At the height of the pandemic, sales of H&M declined by as high as 70 percent in 2020.Despite hurdles posed by the pandemic, the H&M Group is continuously growing and counted over 5,000 stores worldwide in 2020. The three countries with the highest number of stores are the United States, China and Germany.
