Inno

About Axcent of Scandinavia Ayad Al-Saffar has a long career in retail and branding. In early 2000, he acquired from the H&M family the retail chain Ur & Penn, which was founded in 1943 by the late Erling Persson (who later founded H&M). Ur & Penn is still owned by the Al-Saffar family. In mid-2000, Ayad Al-Saffar acquired the still very successful Dutch retail chain Lucardi, that also has stores in Belgium, and later the Dutch department store chain Kijkshop. In 2022, Ayad Al-Saffar, together with partners, acquired the Swedish department store chain Åhléns, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. He is vastly experienced in turning around and expanding retail chains and has, in every acquisition, turned red numbers into black in record time. Åhléns has 48 department stores in Sweden and made profit in the last financial year for the first time in a decade. Åhléns opened one new department store in June and will open two more this year.