H&M says Monki stores will close after brand incorporated into Weekday (#1683710)

Just over a year after the H&M group announced that Monki, its label targeting a younger audience, would join Weekday to create a single youth-focused brand hub, the group has issued a brief communiqué about the fate of the existing Monki stores. All Monki stores will close down in 2025, and only “a limited number” of them will switch over to Weekday. H&M did not give details about the number of employees involved, nor which addresses will continue to operate under Weekday.

Monki currently operates 56 stores worldwide. In 2022, H&M decided to jettison some 20 Monki stores, and in 2023 it closed the label’s Swedish headquarters. The group had acquired Monki in 2008, at the same time as Weekday and Cheap Monday. All three belonged at the time to the thriving Fabric Scandinavien AB group.

H&M has failed to build a successful cluster of youth-focused brands while keeping each of them relatively independent. Cheap Monday staged a minor comeback last year under the Weekday umbrella, after becoming dormant in 2018.

H&M still intends to commercialise Monki products on the label’s e-shop and in Weekday stores.

Despite streamlining its portfolio, the group still retains a significant number of brands, including its flagship label H&M, & Other Stories, COS and Arket, although it has recently sold off the Afound digital fashion outlet to Secret Sales, the British premium e-commerce marketplace for off-price fashion.