new delhi swedish apparel retailer hm will continue to expand its physical stores in india although it is closing down 250 stores globally betting on the longterm potential of the country according to a senior company official the company which opened its first store in india in 2015 currently has 48 outlets in 24 cities but may not open as many stores in the next five years as it also focuses on enhancing its digital presence in india we are relatively small and there is great potential to grow with physical stores as well as digital in future so for us physical stores remain incredibly important and we want to ensure that we have the right stores at the right locations also in the future hm india country manager janne einola told advt earlier this month the swedish retailer had announced that it will close 250 stores globally next year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic as consumers are increasingly shopping online it has 5000 stores worldwide stating that when hm entered india five years back the market was already well digitized and people were used to buying online and considering the growth that the company has witnessed in those five years he saidso we dont have any need for closures of stores but we have a need to open more stores hm plans to open two new stores at lucknow and bhubaneswar going ahead while its online channel has covered 96 per cent of pincodes in india through its own digital channel and in partnership with myntra when asked how many stores would the company open in the next five years einola saidit is difficult to quantify but definitely this 48 stores is too less for the marketi cannot say how many we will do it but not may be as many as we did in the last five years but definitely we will continue to grow in the coming years he said the company expects its physical stores and online channel to complement each other although at present due to the pandemic the digital sales are growing currently consumers are relying more on the digital stores but when the confidence and sentiment start to slowly change people will come back to physical stores einola added advt bullish on the potential of the indian market he saidwe need to grow and there is a great opportunity to grow to the newer tier ii cities where today we have 50 per cent of stores there are many many cities where we can enter and we need to strengthen our position and presence in tier i cities which are very big and there we can have more einola further saidwe need to look more in the long termhm has done very well in the country i am sure the group is looking at india with positive eyes while there is a slowdown due to the global health crisis he said when the pandemic is over india promises a lot