"We see significant opportunities for continued growth both in stores and online. We are ramping up the rate of expansion for full-year 2012 to 300 new stores net from the previously planned 275. We are looking forward to taking our first step into the southern hemisphere next year by opening our first store in South America, which will be a flagship store in Santiago de Chile.

“The online market is increasingly growing, with particularly strong growth in mobile shopping via smartphones and tablets. To accommodate this rapid development, from as early as the beginning of next year we will also offer a completely mobile adapted H&M shop online in H&M’s existing eight online markets.

“Meantime, we have intensified preparations for the rollout of H&M shop online to other markets in the Group. These investments – and as we need more time for the launch of our online shop for the US – mean that the launch of H&M shop online in the US has been moved to summer 2013.”

Hennes & Mauritz Group (H&M)