Swedish fashion brand remains bullish in Philippines

CEBU, Philippines — Amid reports that some global fashion brands are folding up, H&M (Hennes & Mauritz AB) stays bullish of its Philippine operation, adding five more stores before the end of this year.

The Swedish fashion label considered the Philippines as one of its top performing markets in Southeast Asia, said H&M Philippines head for communications Dan Mejia.

According to Mejia, H&M is not happy of its counterparts’ fate considering that they are in the same industry, with the same challenges.

But for H&M, Philippines continues to give encouraging revenue for the company, and the market is still providing promising outlook.

At present, there are a total of 35 H&M stores across the country, three of which are in Cebu (Ayala Center Cebu, SM City Cebu and SM Seaside).

In the next remaining months of 2019, five new H&M stores will be opened mostly in Luzon.

What is important to note also, in H&M’s operations in the Philippines aside from brisk sales, is Filipinos’ increasing interest to recycle their used clothes thru donating them to the brand’s respective stores in the country.

Through H&M’s Garment Collecting initiative, where customers can donate their used clothes and get a discount voucher to use for their next purchase.

In the Philippines, the program has collected 207 thousand tons since 2015. For every kilo collected, P1 is donated to Unicef.

H&M is one of the major supporters of Swedish government’s promotion to sustainable lifestyle.

Recently, the Embassy of Sweden in Manila, launched the provincial leg of the Swedish Exhibition Fashion Revolution: The Future of Textiles at the SM City Cebu.

Curated and produced by the Swedish Institute with the help of researches and sustainable fashion experts, the exhibition highlights the fashion industry’s major environmental challenges, showcases Swedish solutions, and guides consumers to contribute effectively to a more sustainable world.

Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. H&M is responding to minimize its effect to environment by producing up-cycled materials.

H&M was founded in Sweden in 1947 and is quoted on Nasdaq, Stockholm. Its other brands include H&M Home, COS, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday and & Other Stories. It is engaged in the design, manufacture and marketing of clothing items and related accessories.