H&M reportedly moving headquarters from Singapore to KL, to cut 30% of regional workforce

SINGAPORE: The Swedish fashion company H&M is reportedly moving its regional headquarters from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. Moreover, it is also cutting nearly a third of its support workforce in the region.

Most of the redundancies will be from its office in Singapore, a report from Malay Mail claimed. While H&M’s workforce totalled 256 in the region, 78 of the positions are set to be eliminated. The staff was formally told about the changes on May 11. 

The report said that H&M says its retail teams and operations at store-level will stay the same, but its offices in  Seoul and Manila are being downsized, and that support functions in Singapore as well as Ho Chi Minh are being offshored.

The move comes as part of the company’s restructuring plan, first referenced on April 16. Its current regional divisions will be replaced with four new continents, including the Shanghai-based Continent Asia Pacific (APAC), overseeing five sales markets. 

Under this scheme, Southeast Asia’s sales market’s head office will be located in Kuala Lumpur, while the one for Northeast Asia will be in Tokyo. There will be other hubs based in Bangalore and Sydney, and the Greater China Hub will also be located at the APAC headquarters in Shanghai. 

By May 21, H&M’s regional staff will have undergone a calibration process, where they need to accomplish an assessment survey nominating two priority roles. Decisions for placements will depend on their contribution ratings from last year, as well as recent disciplinary records, instead of CV submissions.

Between May 25 and June 19, they will be interviewed and assessed, and informed of the final decision by mid-June at the latest, with the changes coming into effect by July 1. Assistance will be extended to H&M employees who will not be retained in their current roles. /TISG

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