Swedish invasion continues with H&M’s Memphis-area lease

More good news for Memphis shoppers came late last month when another sought-after Swedish retail giant confirmed plans to open its first location in the area.

Stockholm-based Hennes & Mauritz–better known by its initials–will open a 20,000-square-foot store in Collierville’s Carriage Crossing retail center.

The store is set to open in the fall and will be the company’s second Tennessee location. The other is in Nashville’s Opry Mills mall.

From a company news release: “H&M is excited to be opening another location in Tennessee. The new location at Carriage Crossing will offer more access to its quality clothing for the whole family including collections for ladies, men, young ladies and young men, with separate ‘store within store’ sections for accessories and lingerie.”

H&M, known for high fashion at low prices, said the Collierville store also will carry its line of children’s clothing.

The news came only a few days after Swedish furniture titan IKEA announced plans to build a megastore in the Wolfchase area of Memphis. IKEA chose Memphis as its first location in Tennessee.

It will build a 269,000-square-foot store that will employ 235 people. Construction will begin later this year to prepare for a fall 2016 opening.

The announcements are big news for the Memphis retail market, which can tout the presence of IKEA–and to a lesser extent H&M–to solicit even more interest from other large retailers.

“By choosing Memphis, it solidifies the importance of Memphis as a retail market that has opportunity to grow a lot more,” The Shopping Center Group LLC’s Shawn Massey told High Ground News at the time of the IKEA announcement.

“Because IKEA has chosen Memphis, other retailers will look at the Memphis opportunity. We will see other quality national retailers who may have been on the fence with Memphis, and this may be the catalyst to get them to town.”

Memphis is the beneficiary of an aggressive expansion strategy by H&M, which plans to open 375 new stores worldwide this year.

H&M didn’t reveal an employee count for the new Collierville location, but the retailer typically hires 30 to 50 people per store.

It currently operates 3,500 stores and has more than 116,000 employees worldwide. It counts 15,000 U.S. employees in more than 360 domestic locations.