Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) AB, the world’s third-largest fashion chain by revenue behind US-based Gap Inc and Spain’s Inditex SA, yesterday said it had no plans to open stores in Taiwan at the moment.
“Taiwan is one of many interesting markets for H&M. However, at the moment there are no concrete plans to open stores in Taiwan,” public relations manager Cher Chui said in an e-mail to the Taipei Times.
The company always looks at new markets, especially those with a large population where it can grow in a cost-efficient manner. However, Taiwan does not figure in its strategy for now, Hong Kong-based Chui said.
The company’s reply came after a story in the Taipei Times on Feb. 20, which said that H&M was reportedly set to enter the Taiwanese market sometime this year, following in the footsteps of Japan’s largest clothing retailer Fast Retailing Co’s plans to open the first Uniqlo store in Taipei in the third quarter.
H&M has stores in Hong Kong, China, Japan and South Korea.
Customer base, location and business conditions are among the factors used to determine the opening of new stores, Chui said.
“Our stores must always be in the best business location ... The best store location is so important that we would rather hold off from opening a new store and wait until the right location becomes available,” she said.
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