H&M rings up sales growth thanks to aggressive store opening programme

The Swedish retailer, the world’s second-largest fashion chain, said sales jumped 14 per cent in January from a year earlier

H&M rings up sales growth thanks to aggressive store opening programme (Getty)

The global fashion chain H&M has continued its impressive run of growth, with sales rising for the 22nd month in a row thanks to opening more than one store a day across the world.

The Swedish retailer, the world’s second-largest fashion chain, said sales jumped 14 per cent in January from a year earlier, spurred by the extra 357 stores it has opened.

With 3,541 stores worldwide, H&M, led by its chief executive Karl-Johan Persson, revealed last month that it plans to open another 400 stores across the world, including in new markets such as Taiwan, Peru and India.

Its 2014 results, released in January, showed H&M’s sales rose 18 per cent to £11.7bn with gross profit up 17 per cent at £6.9bn. The company said new lines had been well-received across the world, despite unseasonably warm autumn weather hitting some of its biggest markets.

H&M found itself in trouble last month in the UK, its third biggest market behind Germany and the US, after it was found to have paid 540 staff less than the minimum wage. The disclosure was part of a new Government initiative to name and shame employers which fail to pay the £6.50-an-hour wage to staff. H&M blamed a computer error and insisted all employees had been repaid the difference.