Major retailer to close more than 130 stores in big blow for High Street | World | News

Brands include Cos, Weekday, H&M Home and Other Stories and Arket. H&M’s brands dropped from 4,166 stores to 4,036 in one year.

The retailer’s half-yearly report now confirms additional closures.

H&M, founded by Erling Persson in 1947, said it was closing 97 stores in the Asian, Oceanian and African markets.

20 stores were closed in Western Europe, 17 in Scandinavian countries and 4 in Eastern Europe.

A spokesperson for H&M told The Sun: “At H&M Group, we constantly evaluate and develop our portfolio of stores to meet our customers’ needs and deliver the best possible shopping experience both online and in our physical stores.”

“As part of this ongoing work, we continue to optimize our store portfolio by opening, improving and closing stores as necessary.”

The company’s organizational strategy also includes opening approximately 90 new stores this year, although plans to close 170 stores will result in a net reduction of 80 stores.

The group recently opened two stores in Southern Europe and eight new sites in North and South America.

Its first stores in Malta, Paraguay and Azerbaijan will open before the end of the year.