H&M’s new chief Thomas Coellner sees room for more growth

Thomas Coellner has only been in Australia for three weeks but he’s already upbeat about the fashion retail sector.

H&M Australia and NZ CEO Thomas Coellner at the opening of a new store at the Northland Shopping Centre in Preston, Victoria. Picture: Aaron Francis

Thomas Coellner has only been in Australia for three weeks but he’s already upbeat about the nation’s retail sector and stable environment.

But given he has just come from Turkey, where he was the country manager for Swedish department store H&M, it’s probably easy to be impressed.

Mr Coellner is a 30-year veteran of fashion juggernaut H&M, having worked for the global retail chain in Germany and eastern Europe, and yesterday marked his first official day in the chair as country manager for Australia.

He will oversee 31 stores here and takes the reins from Hans Andersson, who is heading back to Sweden.

The pair opened H&M’s sixth store in Victoria yesterday at the Northland shopping centre, and Mr Coellner told The Australian there was still plenty of potential for growth for H&M.

“What I have seen so far in Sydney and Melbourne is the big potential and fashions of the people, and I believe, especially when we are looking at these two big cities, that a company like H&M can have a lot of stores and a lot of options to bring more fashion into many places,’’ Mr Coellner said.

“This I can easily see with just a background of three weeks.’’

H&M, which entered Australia four years ago, recently notched up its third consecutive profit, and is on track to soon hit $1 billion in accumulated sales — much of which has probably leaked from department stores Myer and David Jones.

H&M will soon open its first store in Adelaide and will have a site in every mainland capital apart from Darwin, with further store rollouts planned.

Its annual sales in Australia are more than $350m and although its booming sales growth has moderated, it is still a power player in the industry here.

“I believe we can have strong sales growth in Australia, because we have seen a very big improvement when it comes to buying and also how we able to trade an even better offer,’’ Mr Coellner said.

“So I see a big improvement internally in H&M and I think Australian customers will love it.’’

Mr Coellner said there was potential to open new H&M stores, especially when compared to the retailer’s presence in other key markets.

“If you look at a country like Holland with 16 million inhabitants, we have around 140 stores, so this shows me that we have a huge potential.’’

This could also see H&M opening other retail brands it has in its portfolio, such as COS.

Mr Andersson said the recent political instability in Canberra was a distraction. He has seen three different prime ministers in his short time in Australia.

“If we would have seen five different store managers over five years we would have been a little bit worried … I think it actually impacts the system.

“People’s spending and consumer confidence, it has definitely not been boosted by this.’’

Mr Coellner said H&M was working on a transactional website in the near future, but there was no launch date as yet for online shopping.

“We are working online, we don’t know exactly when it will open in Australia, but I can say all the work which needs to be done before we open an online store, we have started already.

“Hopefully we can be more clear in a few months when we will open our online store.’’

Shares in H&M rallied their most in almost 20 years this week when it reported better than expected sales growth and unconfirmed reports the family that controls the retailer could be exploring taking the group private.