The World

History
Erling Persson, founder of H&M, started out as a salesman in Vasteras, Sweden. While traveling in the United States, he was inspired by a new type of clothing store. The store had high turnover in merchandise and kept its prices low. Upon his return to Sweden, he opened the first Hennes store on September 13th, 1947. It was named "Hennes" (the Swedish word for "hers") because it only sold women's clothes.
Hennes expanded steadily during the 1950's and 60's. When the company was seeking to expand in 1968, Erling Persson bought Mauritz Widforss, a hunting and gun store located in Sergelgatan, Stockholm. A stock of men's clothing came with the store, so the company began selling men's and women's clothes and changed its name to Hennes & Mauritz.
Since 1982, H&M has continued to rapidly expand with Erling Persson's son, Stefan Persson, as Managing Director. In March of 2000, we opened our first US store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan.
Due to our overwhelming success here in the ...