H&M to open first store in Ukraine, announces date, location

Swedish brand H&M, famous for its fast-fashion clothing, has announced key details about its first Ukrainian store.

H&M revealed on June 12 that it would open its Kyiv shop in the 140,000-square-meter Lavina Mall, the country’s largest shopping mall, in August.

The shop will take up 2,900 square meters of space in the mall, and will sell homeware (under the H&M Home brand) as well as a range of clothes for men, women, and children.

H&M Ukraine CEO Dominik Fantachino, quoted in a company press release, said H&M is pleased to enter a new market. “It is a great honor for us to bring style and conscious shopping to Kyiv, and inspire fans of fashion to express themselves,” Fantachino said.

Fantachino said the company is already proud of the new employees is has hired in Ukraine: “We’ve managed to gather the perfect team for the Ukrainian market.”

The Swedish brand plans to open two or three stores in Kyiv by the end of 2018.

H&M has been one of the most anticipated international brands in Ukraine, along with another Swedish brand, IKEA. Rumors that it would come to Ukraine have been circulating for years, but the first official confirmation of its plans to come to Ukraine only appeared in a company six-month report for 2017.

“The new H&M store markets planned for 2018 are Uruguay and Ukraine,” the report read.

H&M (Hennes & Mauritz AB) is now present in over 60 countries and is the second largest retailer in the world after Spanish Inditex Group. In addition to the H&M brand, the company consists of several individual brands like COS, & Other Stories, Cheap Monday, and others.

At the beginning of 2018, property consultancy firm JLL stated that Ukraine would see an influx of new brands to the local market “due to the improving economy.”

At the time, some  big brands confirmed they would enter the market in 2018. They included DeFacto, Decathlon, Koton, H&M, footwear retailer FLO, and interior furnishings store Zara Home. Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA has also expressed interest in Ukraine.

In 2017, 20 international retailers opened their first stores in Ukraine, among them theGerman shoe brand Rieker, Turkish clothing brand Collezione, and U.S. sportswear brand Under Armour.

French clothing-retail firm Promod, which was operated in Ukraine under the ARGO brand, on the contrary, left Ukraine. It closed its sole shop on Khreshchatyk Street in February. The reason for the closure was not announced.