Helena Helmersson is CEO of H&M, a veteran of the same company she started in 1997 as an economist at the buying department and held various roles within buying and production. She was sustainability manager for five years, and after that production manager based in Hong Kong.

H&M with nine labels is one of the biggest fashion retailers globally. It has gradually improved profits and has a strong position with many well-established brands, millions of customers worldwide and good financial strength. For the fourth quarter net sales rose nine percent. The online and physical stores are being increasingly integrated with continued optimisation of the store portfolio. Developments this year will include both physical spaces and web stores. Around 200 new stores are planned to open in 2020, mainly in growth markets, but there are also around 175 planned store closures, mainly in established markets. Australia is scheduled to become a new H&M online market in the second half of 2020 and H&M will be launched on an e-commerce platform in South Korea this year. In a challenging context, and while the industry is facing a radical transformation, the Swedish group has been experimenting with new store concepts and chains for the past years in a trial and error strategy.