Queues for Marni make H&M smarter

Hundreds of shoppers queued through the night to buy H&M's Marni collection this spring, helping the world's second-biggest fashion chain to post a 20 per cent rise in profit to 5.2bn kronor (£473m) for the three months to June.

Sales at the Swedish firm during the quarter rose 15 per cent to 31.7bn kronor from its 2,575 stores.Most of the stores are branches of H&M but about 200 are Cos, Monki, Weekday and Cheap Monday shops.

The chief executive, Karl-Johan Persson, pictured, said: "The spring collections have been well-received by our customers, as shown by our increased market share in a fashion retail market that continues to be challenging."

H&M is opening 275 stores this year, and the UK will get even more branches. China, the US and the UK will be its biggest expansion markets this year.