SHEIKH - Hennes & Mauritz, popularly known as H&M, the Swedish retailer, will open the first women-only department store in Saudi Arabia as part of moves to bring more women into the country's workforce. The store, which will be H&M's first in the country, will be staffed entirely by women. Small female-run stores already exist in Kingdom but H&M will be the first major retail outlet to be staffed by women. It will open in a shopping mall in Riyadh this year and will be operated by the Alshaya Group, a retail company based in Kuwait. Mohammed Alshaya, its chief executive, told delegates at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday that “we will increase the number of women working for us and will have 40 in Saudi Arabia. H&M is embarking on an innovative development to open a store with women working in it. It will have challenges, but we have to do it as this is part of our social responsibility to women in Saudi Arabia.” H&M said earlier that it will open 190 stores this year. Franchised stores operated by Alshaya are expected to open in Saudi, Bahrain, Oman and Egypt.
