Hundreds of shoppers waited in line this morning as the first H&M fashion store opened in Tel Aviv's Azrieli mall. People began arriving at 8am even though the store was not scheduled open until 11am.

Swedish fashion brand H&M, owned by Hennes & Mauritz AB (OMX: HMB) had promised free shirts to the first 200 people to enter the store, and aggressive advertising of this paid off, judging by the crowds that turned up this morning.

Israel's franchisee, the Horesh family, had already held an invitation only evening at the store for hundreds of selected shopped who reportedly bought hundreds of thousands of shekels in clothing.

H&M's second Israel store will open next week at the Malka Mall in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem store was ready to open before the Tel Aviv outlet, but management decided to open the Azrieli Mall store first because of the greater publicity.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 11, 2010

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