H&M to Open Fewer Stores

H&M (Stockholm, Sweden) announced that it is reducing its store-opening forecast for this year—for a second time. It plans to reduce net openings to 385 this year; originally, it had planned to open 430 this year.

Instead, the company will focus on e-commerce, developing new brands (such as Arket, which recently launched) and opening in new markets with more potential for sustained growth (such as Kazakhstan, Colombia, Iceland and Vietnam). It plans to introduce a new brand next year, though it didn’t share more details regarding that.

The news comes as the retailer shared its third-quarter earnings, which included a decline in pretax profit of 20 percent, according to Bloomberg.