First H&M in PH: Opening date revealed

September 24, 2014 Philippine Local News

The wait is over for H&M fans – now get ready to line up.

Swedish retail brand H&M will open doors to Filipino shoppers on October 17, 2014 at 9am until midnight, announced the brand on September 24. The first branch is located at Mega Fashion Hall, the newest addition to SM Megamall.

According to the release, the first 200 customers in line will receive gift cards valued as high as P6,000 each, and opening offers that are up to 50% off.

Regular store hours will be from 10am to 10pm and will begin October 20 onwards.

The store spans 3 floors and over 3,000 square meters, and will carry clothes for a wider demographic, from newborns to new moms, from little boys to menswear.

Long rumored to be arriving in the Philippines, the news was confirmed as early as November 2013. H&M is the force behind its own arrival and is not in an exclusive agreement with a local partner. According to their website, franchising is not in their general expansion strategy, though they may tie up with local partners as required.

FOR SHOW, FOR KEEPS. Aside from the launch of its first flagship store in the Philippines, H&M has also launched a showroom to showcase the ever-changing items continuously added to the lineup. Photo by Mark Cristino/Rappler

Having set the stage for the flagship store, the brand also confirms that more branches are set to open in the folllowing locations, in no particular order:

Robinsons Magnolia
Robinsons Place Manila
SM Makati
SM North EDSA

During a media visit to the company’s headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, CEO Karl-Johan Persson told Filipino journalists that both longtime fans and new customers would find plenty of variety in the offerings.

“[There’s] great diversity regardless of style. Hopefully you will find something, [with] the value for money, the quality you get in relation to the price. You don’t have to have a huge wallet to be able to afford H&M,” he said.

He also confirmed that the next stores would be focusing on Manila for a while, but did not rule out the possibility of opening outside of Manila or Luzon.

Filipino netizens looking for their H&M fix online may have a little longer to wait, however, as no final date has been set yet for online shopping in the Philippines. “Yeah, absolutely,” said Persson, when asked of his interest to bring online shopping to the Philippines.

“Not [on] day 1, but it’s growing, we are expanding the online business…When we do [come to the Philippines], we’ll do it in a good way.”

The store will carry the same merchandise available globally, and will retain the same apparel categories, including the Conscious line and the trendy, streetwear-friendly Divided line.

The Philippine branch is also confirmed to carry the brand’s 2014 designer collaboration, with fashion wunderkind Alexander Wang.

The Philippines is the 55th market for H&M. New stores are also being planned in Peru, India, Taiwan, and South Africa, though no exact dates have been announced.