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The Swedish fashion retailer H&M is planning to capitalise on its popularity in India by expanding itself and increasing its employee strength.

The retailer, which entered India last year with a store in the national capital, currently has 6 stores across the country in cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru and Mohali. The stores have staff strength of about 800, a number which the retailer is looking to push to 1000 by the end of the year by opening 6 more stores – three in Mumbai, two in Pune and one in Chennai, taking the overall total to 12 before the end of 2016.

According to the retailer’s Head of Communications, Dhatri Bhatt, the company has long-term plans for India and it believes in investing to grow local talent. It plans to invest around Rs 780 crore to open 30 stores in the country over the next five years.

Internationally, H&M has around 4,000 stores and 148,000 employees and it is using its wide international presence to give more exposure to its Indian staff. During its launch in India, the company sent its sales advisors to the UK for a month long training. Even the staffs at the store were sent for training in batches for two months.

H&M is also the first retail chain in India to give two days off in a week to its sales staff. “At H&M India, 10 sales advisors in less than six months moved to management roles and 55 employees have been moved to newer roles,” explained Dhatri Bhatt talking about quick employee growth in the company.