H&M closes Berlin innovation lab Beyond

H&M is ending the activities of H&M Beyond in the German capital. This was confirmed by the Swedish clothing group at the request of FashionUnited on Thursday.

Oliver Lange, the previous manager of the project, reported the cancellation of the project at the end of last week on the career network LinkedIn. Lange left the company on 1 May and the H&M Beyond team, which previously consisted of four people, will also be dissolved, according to a company spokesperson. The decision goes hand in hand with an organisational change with which the Swedish clothing group is currently trying to improve its business results via cost-cutting measures.

However, the end of the innovation lab does not mean the end of innovation at H&M. According to a company spokesperson, H&M will use the strategic insights and expertise from H&M Beyond to integrate into the H&M brand. The project’s data, insights, agile processes and methods will continue to be utilised.

On LinkedIn, the H&M initiative describes itself as a ‘think tank’. Since it was founded four years ago, initiatives with future potential in the fashion industry have been tested – such as a hyperlocal store in Berlin Mitte or a personalised embroidery service in collaboration with the clothing technology provider Coloreel. The idea was to quickly test forward-looking ideas in practice with a small, agile unit within a large corporation.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.DE. Translation and edit by: Rachel Douglass.