H&M exists in 55 countries with 3,500 stores and as of 2013 employed around 116,000 people. It had 2,325 stores at the end of 2011, 2,629 stores at the end of August 2012 and opened its 3,000th store in September 2013 in Chengdu, China. These facilities are used for horizontal division of labour, rather than being integrated.