The Swedish group H&M announces the loss of 1,500 jobs

An H&M brand store in Stockholm, Sweden (illustrative image).

AFP - FREDRIK SANDBERG

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The world number 2 in fashion made this decision to save money: sales fell due to inflation, energy and freight costs increased.

To reduce its expenses, the H&M group is therefore one of the first major European retailers to resort to layoffs.

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With our correspondent in Stockholm,

The ax fell and, internally, we expected it.

Announced in September, H&M's restructuring plan expected to save the equivalent in crowns of 183 million euros per year from 2023. By October, 400 employees had already been notified of their layoffs in around 60 of Swedish stores.

Finally, 1,500 jobs will be cut, mainly in Sweden, where 10,000 people work for the clothing giant, out of the group's 170,000 employees worldwide.

H&M said the brand is going through some headwinds, and that's been going on for a while.

First, the pandemic in 2020 with

.

Then the brand was subject to a boycott in China, after H&M raised concerns about forced labor in Xinjiang.

And this year, the war in Ukraine, pushed the group to close its stores in Russia, a loss of 200 million euros in the third half.

The last stores, including the Moscow flag-ship, also closed on Wednesday.

This is without taking into account the increase in the cost of textiles, electricity, freight and the fall in consumption, certainly linked to the economic situation, but also to the very strong competition from brands sold on the Internet.

A real structural challenge for the Swedish clothing giant.

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