H&M to Surge with Store Openings in Late 2025 After Shuttering 1,000 Locations Since 2019

H&M has officially concluded year 2 of its transformation process. And it is doing so with an unprecedented rally of macro store openings, higher and dispersed around the world. With the processes already reordered, the product rethought and the online operation relaunched, the world’s second largest fashion retail group is now focusing on its stores. The company is accelerating in the final stretch of the financial year with openings in Paris or Los Angeles, after having closed nearly 1,000 stores since 2019.

With collaborations, presentations in the fashion capitals, a more elevated product and, above all, closer to the trend and less to the basics, the company is focused on recovering the lost positioning, pressured by the leap forward in image and product of Zara and the low prices of Shein. This process began two years ago, with the appointment of Daniel Ervér as CEO, who took over from Helena Helmersson.

Pending the results for the full year two of Ervér’s roadmap, last August the Swedish group ended the first nine months of FY2025 with a 1.8% cumulative drop in sales, although only in the third quarter the decline was 3.4%. In terms of profitability, on the other hand, the company recorded an improvement, recovering 40% in the third quarter and 9.8% in the year to date.

H&M reached its peak store count in 2019 and has since closed 958 stores worldwide

At the end of August, H&M had a network of 4,118 stores worldwide. This is the lowest peak in the company’s physical retail estate since 2016: in the third quarter of that fiscal year, it had 4,077 outlets.

Between 2016 and 2019, the number of the group’s physical outlets grew uninterruptedly: if ended the 2016 financial year with 4,351 stores; in 2017 it jumped to 4,739; in 2018 to 4,968 and in 2019, to 5,076 stores. Pending the closing figures for the 2025 financial year, between 2019 and the third quarter of 2025, H&M had 958 fewer stores in the world.

Starting in 2019, the company began a process of rationalizing its network that its great rival in the segment, Inditex, had been executing for years. The closure plan, led by the former CEO (Helena Helmersson), involved cutting 58 units in the Covid year, to cut 217 more in 2021, 336 more in 2022 and 96 more in 2023.

In 2024 and until the third quarter of 2025, with the new CEO (Daniel Ervér) at the helm, H&M has reduced its network by a further 251 stores: 116 in 2024 and 135 in the first three quarters of 2025. Pending the final tally in the fourth quarter of the year just ended, the company has begun a process of new store openings in the period: fewer, but more noticeable and focused on key cities for its positioning and the expansion of its business.

H&M store in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

In France, the company launched its largest store in the world in November, located in Forum des Halles, after ten months of remodeling. With this opening, the company completes the makeover in the city of Paris, which has included stores such as Rosny, Aéroville, So Ouest, Bearugrenelle and, most notably and the only new store, Le Marais.

In September, the company opened a store at 43 Rue Francs-Bourgeois in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. In the 1,000-square-meter store, spread over three floors, the company unites its women’s, men’s, intimates, accessories, beauty and second-hand lines, as well as the H&M Studio and H&M Atelier capsules, with higher-priced products.

In Europe, the company has also rebranded its flagship stores in Italy and Spain, without adding new outlets. On November 21 and after four months closed, the brand’s Florence store on Via Por Santa Maria reopened its doors, as it did on Madrid’s Gran Via, after undergoing a thorough refurbishment. In Spain, the Gran Vía renovation was added to those on Velázquez, Orense, Castellana and Parquesur streets, all in Madrid.

The company has strengthened its presence in Italy.

But H&M’s most notable opening in the final stretch of the year was in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, in the United States. This is the group’s first store in the iconic 90210 district, a space of nearly 500 square meters with which the company seeks to strengthen its local positioning, in addition to the renovations carried out in Beverly Center and The Grove, also in Los Angeles.

In Asia, in October the group opened a new flagship store in South Korea, located in the Seongsu area of Seoul. Divided into three floors, the store will house collections from local artists and creators, seeking to connect with the local community and elevate its positioning.

In China, the group reopened in September its Huaihai Road store in Shanghai, which was the first store the group opened in China in 2007, but which had closed its doors in 2022. The 3,000-square-meter store includes a café and a flower shop, under the House of H&M concept.

In the Middle East, the company has begun a process of overhauling its store network on the two-decade anniversary of its partnership with local operator Alshaya. The starting point was the makeover of the store in the Dubai Mall.