The stylish Swedes are coming to SA

Published Oct 7, 2015

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Johannesburg - Mention H&M to people who’ve visited or lived abroad, and there’ll be an instant lightbulb moment as they conjure up this established, homely, value-for-money fashion brand.

It’s akin to “Woolies” in South Africa, a default store for good, wearable, trendy clothing for women, men, teens, kids and babies.

H&M is now on its way to South Africa, and by now you’ll probably be familiar with its branding, as the media has been awash with news of its arrival. The Cape Town H&M store opens on October 17 at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, occupying 4 700m2 on multiple levels, while in Sandton City, a long strip of H&M bunting is awaiting opening day of its 3 100m2 space on November 8.

So what is all the fuss about? Nearly every international fashion brand store you can think of, from Prada to Burberry to Lipsy London, is already in South Africa, so H&M will really just be joining the ever-expanding competition, right?

True, H&M will be facing some tough competition here. Its main foreign competitor is the Spanish brand Zara (to which it is No 2 worldwide), and locally, chain stores like Woolworths and Edgars, but this Swedish brand – with its quality garments at highly affordable prices – is convinced that it will find a loyal and growing niche in South Africa’s middle-class sector, urbanites plugged into fashion trends but on a budget.

A ladies denim jacket, or a pair of jeans, will retail for R349, for instance. A simple cotton shirt, for a woman or man, costs R299 and a silk tie is priced at R299. A pair of office trousers will go for R399, and a man’s jacket for R899. Also, the turnaround of stock will be daily, with all seasonally appropriate collections introduced at the same time as the northern hemisphere.

“There is a vibrant urban energy in Johannesburg and with that comes an insatiable demand for global style… We open in time for the festive season where customers can look forward to a wide variety of spring and summer collections,” says Par Darj, country manager for H&M South Africa.

H&M funded a media junket last month to its home in Stockholm, Sweden, where we got a sense of this well-supported European brand, its roots and how it is positioning itself. The brand was born in 1947, first as Hennes store in Vasteras, Sweden, selling women’s clothing. It changed to Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) in 1968 when its founder, Erling Persson, bought the hunting store Mauritz Widforss with its stock of men’s clothing.

H&M listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in the 1970s, and in the 1980s global expansion saw H&M introduced in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Luxemburg, Finland and France. The first stores in the US and Spain opened in 2000. Expansion continued, and today it has 3 600 stores spread across 59 markets, with a growth target to increase its number of stores by 10 to 15 percent a year.

In its marketing campaigns, H&M often focuses on its ethical, sustainable practices, although it hit rocky terrain last year when the London Daily Mail picked it out for paying staff less than the minimum wage, and sceptics question whether an international fashion retailer manufacturing tons of clothing every month can really call itself sustainable.

Its celebrity connections are a huge part of H&M’s success. Kate Moss was one of its most famous celebrity models, until she got dumped in 2005 after her drug-taking scandal.

Celebrity designers with whom H&M have collaborated include Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Roberto Cavalli, Versace and Alexander Wang. The House of Balmain (designer Olivier Rousteing) is H&M’s latest collaboration and the resulting collection is described by the brand’s creative designer Ann-Sofie Johansson as “a mix of something couture-like, very glamorous, with a bit of streetwear attitude”.

So what you can expect at the H&M stores is a wide variety of designer-inspired clothing, occasionally embracing the flamboyant and detailed, but mostly pared down to very wearable, everyday clothing. The coming collections for women are richly textured and colourful, with plenty of statement prints. Denim is washed out, worn tone on tone and infused with summer white. Tropical prints are oversized and underpinned with an earth-based palette of rust, ochre and moss. The silhouettes are short, sharp and playful.

The collection for men is all modern cuts, subtle colours and quality fabrics, and the upcoming collection includes preppy-style office wear with turn-ups in navy, black and white. The Balmain/H&M collection is also going to be released at the Sandton City store.

Back in Stockholm, a handful of South Africans have been doing a three-month stint learning the ropes of store management – such is the commitment of this company to getting it right in their new sub-Saharan market. “We do this training each time we open in a new market. It is a big human resources investment, but it’s worth it because it’s important for staff to know how things are done in this company, and the values that underpin it,” comments Carina Grauers, head of global HR for H&M.

 

Sustainability the H&M way

Sustainable clothing – some fashion houses pay little more than lip service to this concept. H&M, however, claims to embrace a raft of ethical practices that it says it counts on for its own longevity, given that consumers worldwide are increasingly aware of “green” ways of doing business.

One of the world’s biggest users of organic cotton, H&M won’t buy it from Uzbekistan for example, where children are used as labour in the cotton fields, according to Morten Bredal, H&M’s PR co-ordinator in Stockholm.

“Our suppliers are also trained and incentivised by us to improve their own sustainability, especially in saving water. We regularly audit our suppliers to ensure they uphold acceptable practices,” says Bredal.

Where possible, H&M uses other sustainable materials, like polyester.

Of the thousands of tons of textiles that people throw away each year, as much as 95 percent could be re-worn or recycled. So,as part of its recently announced “Close the Loop” campaign, each H&M store has a garment collection box and invites customers to bring in their unwanted clothing to be re-used or recycled.

H&M also transports its product by sea or rail (as opposed to flying it in), in an effort to lessen its carbon footprint, and recycles up to 91 percent of the packaging it comes in, says Bredal.

The company itself has a “flat” organisational structure that is not hierarchical and 70 percent of its staff, including at board level, are women. “The percentage of women in the company is not because of any quota, but because, simply, they were the best people for the job,” said H&M chief executive Carl-Johan Persson, grandson of the brand’s founder.

Persson says the company is built on the ethics his grandfather put in place, based on the belief that ethical business practices, even if they cost the company more, equate to long-term sustainability.

The Star

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