H&M, which stands for Hennes & Mauritz, is a multinational fashion and homewares retailer with an HQ in Sweden. With its clothing stores focusing on fast-fashion, the group operates in 74 countries, holding around 5,000 stores and employing 126,000 people. It was founded by Erling Persson in Vasteras in Sweden in 1947 and is now run by his son (and majority shareholder) Stefan Persson, along with his grandson Karl-Johan Persson. In the most recent financial year, H&M stated that 28% of sales made were online purchases. Brands under the umbrella of the wider H&M Group include H&M, H&M Home, Weekday, Cos, Monki and Arket. This makes the group the second-largest global clothing retailer, only behind the Spanish firm Inditex (the parent company of Zara). H&M has collaborated on campaigns with some of the world's most famous celebrities including Beyonce, Lana Del Rey and Kylie Minogue. There have also been collections with designers such as Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfeld, Jimmy Choo and Alexander Wang. H&M products and services:

• Womenswear
• Menswear
• Baby and Childrenswear
• H&M Home
• Beauty

Ownership The founder of H&M Erling Persson passed most of the company down to his children. His son Stefan Persson and family own 50.5% of the total shares and 76% of the voting shares. Meanwhile, his daughter Lottie Tham and family hold 5.4% of the total shares and 2.6% of the voting shares. There are other investors and groups holding between 1% and 5% including JP Morgan Chase which  owns 2% of the total shares and 1% of the voting shares. Some H&M shares are available to the public too via Nasdaq Stockholm. Therefore the brand is a public limited company, but the majority of shares are privately held.