Founded in 1947, Swedish clothing retailer H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (STO:HM-B), commonly known as H&M, has grown into one of the most recognizable brands in the fashion industry. As reported by Bloomberg, H&M has almost 4000 stores worldwide and has plans for 7000-8000 more stores in the future. H&M is quickly approaching the level of proliferation that its biggest rival Inditex (BME:ITX), operator of the Zara brand, currently possesses.