H&M has clashed with landlords over the possibility of turnover-based rents.
This comes as H&M has insisted that if any returns come into a store, including from purchases made online, they are deducted from that shops revenues, meaning that landlords will receive even less.
H&M is offering landlords ‘total occupational deals’ where they offer landlords a sum linked to the amount of sales that a store makes, leaving them to divide it between service charge, rent and business rates. In some cases, business rates are more expensive that rent, so landlords will have to accept minimal rent to ensure that their rents and service charge bills are covered.
H&M said: “Like every retail business, we work with our landlords to draw up lease agreements that allow us to run a successful store portfolio. We won’t discuss the details of individual contracts as we consider this information to be commercially sensitive.”
