Swedish fashion retailer, H&M, has announced that its first store in the Australian Capital Territory will open on November 23.
The new store, which will span approximately 2700sqm and will be set over two levels, will be located at Canberra Centre. It will offer apparel, underwear and accessories for men, women, kids and baby.
“We are proud to be able to announce our expansion into the ACT with our new store at Canberra Centre opening on the 23rd of November” said Hans Andersson, Australian country manager for H&M.
Andersson said they are looking forward to finally introduce the H&M brand to Canberra and show the retail experience their brand has to offer.
H&M entered the Australian market in 2014 and now has 22 stores nationwide. Further stores that have been announced including Stockland Townsville and Stockland Rockhampton in Queensland and The District, Docklands in Victoria.
The H&M at Stockland Townsville will open on October 19, followed by the H&M store at Stockland Rockhampton on November 2. The two new stores will be the seventh and eighth H&M stores to open in Queensland.
Meanwhile H&M Group has also invested in new unique recycling technology, after partnering with Swedish company re:newcell whose unique technology recycles used cotton, viscose and other cellulosic fibers into a new, more sustainable dissolving pulp.
The pulp can be turned into new textile fibers and be fed into the textile production cycle.
H&M said the partnership is another step towards H&Ms goal to use 100 per cent recycled or other sustainably sourced material by 2030.
“Re:newcell´s technology has the potential to become a commercial and scalable solution for the industry and accelerate the journey from a linear fashion industry towards a circular one”, said Cecilia Brännsten, acting environmental sustainability manager and circular economy lead, at H&M group.
Earlier this month, the fast fashion giant reported a quarterly earnings drop after reduced footfall in stores and increased competition in the fashion sector.
Net profit for the three months to end-August, the third quarter of the retailer’s financial year, came in at 3.84 billion kronor ($470 million), a drop of 20 percent. Sales grew 4.6 percent to 51.23 billion kronor.
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