Heavily impacted by the consequences of the crisis, the Swedish store chain Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) has announced its intention to close two stores in the famous shopping street of Meir, in Antwerp. Near sixty jobs are threatened.

The information was disclosed by the Christian union ACV Puls. He reports that the two stores, both with an area of ​​more than 2,000 square meters, should cease their activities at the end of 2021, or even early 2022. The famous brand will only keep its “flagship store” in the commercial artery.

ACV Puls hopes that team transfers will limit the layoffs. Otherwise, the union wants a voluntary departure formula.

It’s true that H&M is sitting on a ton… of unsold clothes. On September 15, 2020, the group suffered a loss of 280 million euros since the start of the crisis. So thatin October 2020, the Swedish giant had announced that it would have to close 250 stores worldwide (out of the 5,000 it totals) in 2021.

The company, which was slowly recovering from the crisis (with better results than expected in the third quarter of 2020) then announced that it wanted prioritize online sales.

The brand, which is looking for alternatives to its lower revenues, has also deployed its digital platform for the sale of second-hand clothing. Since February 2, Sellpy has also been operational in Pays-Pas and Austria. 40% of sales revenue is attributed to Internet users. The percentage increasing if the sale is greater than 50 euros. The site also aims to promote sustainable fashion and has been very successful in Sweden since 2014.

The Swedish giant also launched Singular Society last December, a sort of Netflix platform for clothing.