H&M sister brand opens

 

COS Melbourne StoreH&M sister brand, Cos, will open its first Australian store in Melbourne today.

Located at the newly opened Strand shopping centre on Elizabeth St, the store is the first for the fashion retailer in the southern hemisphere.

Cos, which stands for Collection of Style, is H&M’s second largest brand, having launched in 2007.

The Cos brand has a slightly older target market than the main H&M brand, with higher price points to reflect this positioning.

Marie Honda, MD of Cos, told Inside Retail there are no current plans for further expansion in Australia.

“We are always looking for new locations, however, we are currently extremely focused on our first store in Melbourne to ensure it is a success,” Honda said.

This year, Cos has opened stores in six new markets including Switzerland, Portugal, Korea, Japan, the US, and Australia.

“We are always looking for new locations, however, at this stage we focusing on our stores in the markets we are in,” Honda said.

The Melbourne store will stock the womenswear, menswear, and childrenswear collections as well as accessories.

“At Cos we strive for timeless collections that last beyond the season. We have two collections a year which are sold throughout the different markets although, due to climate restrictions we felt it was most suitable to sell one season behind in Australia.”

cos, h&m, melbourne
Cos Melbourne

Cos has 110 stores in 24 countries. It sells online in 18 countries in Europe and in May this year launched an online store in the US.

“[E-commerce] is something we are looking at for the future [in Australia], however, we do not currently have a launch date for online,” Honda said.

H&M made its Australian debut this year in April at Melbourne’s iconic GPO building.

The 5000sqm is one the biggest in the world for the brand, occupying three levels and offering H&M’s full men’s, women’s, and children’s fashion ranges, as well as its homewares line.

Last month, H&M opened its first store in Sydney at Macquarie Centre in North Ryde as part of the shopping centre’s $440 million redevelopment.

H&M announced last week it will open two stores in Brisbane next year, followed by a third store in Sydney in Pitt St Mall by mid 2015.

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