Hennes was the name of H&M’s first Swedish store before the company became Hennes & Mauritz.
Erling Persson opened Hennes in Västerås in 1947. The Swedish name means “hers,” reflecting the store’s original focus on women’s clothing. The business used that name while it developed as a women’s fashion retailer.
A major change came in 1968, when Persson acquired Mauritz Widforss, a Stockholm retailer associated with hunting and outdoor goods. The acquisition brought menswear into the business and produced the name Hennes & Mauritz. The abbreviation H&M later became the familiar public brand.
“Hennes” is sometimes treated as if it were an acronym, but it was simply the original Swedish store name. The later “M” came from Mauritz, not from a product category or a founder’s name.