From a single women’s wear shop in Västerås, Sweden, to six different brands and around 4000 stores all around the world.
The company H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB has today six independent brands: H&M, COS, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday and & Other Stories.
It all started in 1946. The founder of H&M Erling Persson came up with the idea of offering fashionable clothing at attractive prices. The first shop was opened in 1947 in Väterås, and the first shop sold only women`s clothing ("Hennes" in Swedish means "hers"). Later in 1968 the company acquired the retailer "Mauritz Widforss", which was a part of the strategy to include menswear in the product range, and now the famous brand, we know today, "Hennes & Mauritz" was created to brand both clothes for men and women. Later is was rebranded to H&M to simplify the perception of the brand in the global world.
The mission is and has always been to create fashionable clothes to an attractive prize, but today there are also focus on sustainability in their production. The collections include everything from party collections to basic and functional sportswear for the family.
In 2009 the company started to sell home furnishings online.
