MUMBAI: Fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz’s (H&M) yearly India sales have nearly doubled, albeit at a slower pace. For the year to end November, sales climbed to Rs 954 crore from Rs 490 crore a year ago, the world’s second-largest clothing firm said in a statement issued on Wednesday. During the year, the retailer expanded stores aggressively and kept prices lower than rivals.The company’s sales growth, however, has slowed. For the quarter ended November, sales rose 20% to Rs 247 crore compared with over 50% increase during the preceding quarters. H&M, which follows a December-November financial year, entered India in October 2015. It has opened, on average, a store every month, taking the tally to 27 now. Earlier, the company had said it would open 50 stores in India with an investment of Rs 700 crore by 2020.The retailer also said it plans to enter the Indian online market this year. In its two years of operations, H&M has surpassed several brands by sales, including Levi Strauss and Benetton, which have been in the country for two decades now, and Marks & Spencer, which started a decade ago. However, Spanish chain Zara, which opened its first store in India in 2010, is still the biggest international apparel brand in the country with sales of Rs 1,023 crore during 2016-17.But the company’s sales growth has been slowing, both globally and in India. The clothing chain, that runs more than 4,700 stores worldwide, reported a 4% fall in fourth-quarter sales, its biggest year-onyear quarterly drop. “The roll-out of GST impacted both pricing as well as supply across the segment, with many brands announcing heavy discounts that may have affected H&M. Also, the fad of a new brand fades after a point,” said Ruchi Sally, director at Elargir Solutions, a retail consultancy.