H&M opens first street shop in Romania, plans two more openings in shopping malls by year-end

Swedish retailer H&M will open two more shops in Romania by the end of this year, after inaugurating its first H&M street location on Thursday, November 7, in the capital's Old Town. A new shop will open on December 1 in Iris Titan shopping center in Bucharest, and another one in Galati in December. The retailer also plans to add 800 sqm to its existing store in Afi Palace Cotroceni mall in Bucharest, according to Andreia Urzica, PR Manager of H&M in Romania. By year end, it should have 30 shops in Romania. For 2014, the retailer plans to grow at a similar pace, with an expected growth of 10 to 15 percent of its shop network. The recent opening of the 1,800 sqm street shop in the Old Town, on the Lipscani street, not only brings the first street location for the retailer in Romania, but marks the entry of its H&M Home collections, which have a dedicated floor in the new shop. Romania is among the first countries in the world where H&M offers its home design collections, which were launched in 2009. With 20 employees, the new shop has three sales floors but is not H&M's largest shop in Romania, the nearby store in Unirea Shopping center is larger, covering over 2,000 sqm. The opening in the Old Town represents the first step made by a large fashion retailer into Bucharest's old center, which is more of an entertainment area, rather than a shopping area. “We hope the Old Town will become a shopping area in Bucharest too, and we're happy to lead the way. We will welcome other retailers too, healthy competition is good for helping the area develop,” said Urzica. H&M’s sales in Romania increased by 38 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of the current fiscal year (period between March 1 and May 31, 2013), amounting to around EUR 25 million (SEK 222 million), according to the company’s latest report. Expressed in local currency (RON), the rise in sales was even higher - 44 percent. The clothing retailer currently owns over 2,900 stores spread across 49 markets. In Romania, H&M opened its first store in 2011. Corina Chirileasa, corina@romania-insider.com (photos by Corina Chirileasa for Romania-Insider.com)