H&M Loves New York

H&M Hennes & Mauritz (Stockholm, Sweden), the “cheap chic” specialty apparel retailer, will open its newest U.S. store next week in New York.

The large store, on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, will be opposite Bloomingdale’s, Zara and Banana Republic on the same corner.

H&M opened its 1000th store this summer, up from 682 in fiscal 2000.

In November, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who designs for Chanel and Fendi as well as for his own label, will introduce a bargain line for H&M. According to H&M ceo Rolf Eriksen, the Lagerfeld collection will not be permanent, but it is expected to sell out in a week, in 500 stores, and it will not be duplicated.

H&M, which has been opening stores in new areas of Europe (like Italy, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Ireland and the Czech Republic), acknowledges that business in the United States — which the company projected would break even in 2002 (two years after it opened its Fifth Avenue flagship in New York) — has hit some bumps.

It declines to release sales figures that would compare the performance of its original New York store (on Fifth Avenue, in Rockefeller Center). It releases only overall sales figures. For fiscal year 2003, which ended in March 2004, total sales volume worldwide was up 6 percent. And while quarterly sales in the U.S. have recently been reported as 27 percent higher than a year ago, the company has also said quarterly losses were in the $800,000-$900,000 range in the U.S.

“There are 70 H&M stores in the U.S.A.,” Eriksen told The Times. “I think we can have a few more stores. We are opening 10 stores this year in the U.S., and I think that is the right level. Next year? I don’t know how many.”

Asked if he had been disappointed in the United States, Eriksen stated, “We have never been disappointed in the United States. The customers have taken to us very well.”