Understand any stock in simple English
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H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ)
H&M sells affordable clothes, accessories, shoes, cosmetics, and home goods to shoppers around the world through its stores and websites.
H&M is one of the world's biggest fashion retailers. It sells inexpensive but trendy clothing for women, men, and children, plus shoes, accessories, cosmetics, and things for the home. You probably know it as the store in the mall where you can buy a whole outfit for the price of one nice shirt somewhere else. The company runs thousands of stores across many countries and also sells online, so most of its money comes from shoppers walking in or clicking "buy" and paying for clothes they want to wear right now.
The business works like this: H&M designs clothes, orders them from factories (mostly in Asia and Europe), ships them to stores, and sells them fast. The tricky part of fast fashion is that trends change quickly, so the company has to guess what people will want months in advance and then mark down whatever doesn't sell. That guessing game is the whole business. H&M's edge is scale: it buys in enormous volumes, which keeps prices low, and its huge store network lets it reach shoppers almost everywhere. H&M is a Swedish company, founded in 1947 in Västerås, and it is still controlled by the founding Persson family. It competes with other cheap-chic chains like Zara (owned by Spain's Inditex) and Primark, plus online players like Shein and Amazon. The rise of ultra-fast online fashion has squeezed H&M hard in recent years, forcing it to close stores, invest in its own websites, and try to speed up its supply chain to keep up.
One awkward fact: H&M's clothes are cheap partly because the factories that make them are cheap, and the company has faced repeated criticism over working conditions and the environmental cost of fast fashion. It has responded with "conscious" clothing lines and recycling programs, though critics say these are smaller steps than the problem requires. On the money side, H&M has historically paid out a big chunk of its profits as dividends rather than doing huge buybacks, and it has spent heavily in recent years on upgrading its online sales and logistics rather than opening tons of new stores.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026
BIG PICTURE
H&M controls only about 1.6% of the world's clothing market
- 1.6% H&M's slice of the global clothing market
- 98.4% Everyone else selling clothes
People may see an H&M on nearly every big shopping street, yet it holds just about 1.6% of the global clothing market. The rest is split among thousands of rivals, which explains why the company keeps opening new brands and pushing online. Close to 70% of its money comes from Europe and Africa, so a slip at home hits hard. Source: Schroder International Selection Fund Global Climate Change Equity, data from 2026
Timeline
A Store Called Hennes
Erling Persson came back from a trip to New York convinced of one idea: great fashion should not be a luxury. So he opened a womenswear store in Västerås, Sweden, and called it Hennes, Swedish for "Hers." He even drew the logo himself.
Men and Children Join In
Two decades later, Hennes bought a hunting and fishing brand called Mauritz Widforss, mostly for the men's clothes that came with it. The name became Hennes & Mauritz, and suddenly it sold clothes for the whole family, not just women.
The Company Goes Public
The company listed its shares on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and its stores got a shorter name: H&M. Now the public could own a piece of the affordable-fashion idea.
A Son Takes Over
Erling Persson stepped aside and handed the top job to his son, Stefan Persson. It was the first handover in what would become a very long family run.
Selling Online and Landing in Paris
H&M opened its first online shop in Sweden, letting people buy without walking into a store. The same year, it opened its first store in Paris, one of the fashion capitals of the world.
Fifth Avenue Dream
A big H&M flagship opened on Fifth Avenue in New York. For Erling Persson, this was a dream come true, and it marked the start of H&M growing beyond Europe.
Karl Lagerfeld Shocks Fashion
H&M teamed up with Karl Lagerfeld, one of the biggest names in high fashion, to make designer clothes at H&M prices. The message was simple: good design is not about price. It was such a hit that a long line of famous designers followed.
A Grandson Steps Up
Erling Persson's grandson, Karl-Johan Persson, became CEO. That same year H&M opened stores in Shanghai and Hong Kong and launched COS, its first separate brand.
The Unsold Clothes Pile Up
Sales dropped badly, and the CEO held a meeting to calm investors. But worse news came soon after: roughly four billion dollars of unsold clothes were sitting in warehouses, and profit collapsed. It was one of the biggest inventory pileups retail had ever seen, and H&M fell far behind its rival Inditex.
First Woman CEO
Helena Helmersson, a longtime company insider, became H&M's first female CEO, with Karl-Johan Persson moving to chairman. It came as profit rose for the first time in years, and investors cheered.
Leaving Russia
After Russia invaded Ukraine, H&M ended retail operations in Russia, closing more than 150 stores. Russia was one of its biggest markets, so walking away meant giving up real sales.
The CEO Quits
Helena Helmersson unexpectedly resigned after four years, saying the job was very demanding and she did not have the energy to continue. Daniel Ervér, an 18-year company veteran, took over immediately, and shares fell as sales dropped and H&M struggled against Zara and Shein.
Ervér's Turnaround
Under Daniel Ervér, H&M's third-quarter operating profit jumped 40 percent and beat expectations, sending shares up 10 percent. He shook up marketing with pop stars like Charli XCX and staged H&M's first catwalk show since 2018. Shoppers paid full price more often, and inventory fell, though US tariffs threatened margins.