Inditex

Industria de Diseño Textil, S.A. (Inditex; /ˌɪndɪˈtɛks/, Spanish: [indiˈteks]; lit. 'Textile Design Industry') is a Spanish multinational clothing company headquartered in Arteixo (A Coruña) in Galicia.[2]

Industria de Diseño Textil, S.A.

Trade name	Inditex
Type	Sociedad Anónima
Traded as	BMAD: ITX
ISIN	ES0148396007
Industry	Retailing
Predecessor	Confecciones GOA, S.A. GOASAM, S.A.
Founded	A Coruña, Spain (12 June 1985 (1985-06-12))
Founder	Amancio Ortega Rosalía Mera
Headquarters	Arteixo (A Coruña) , Spain
Number of locations	7292 stores[1]
Area served	Global
Key people	Pablo Isla (Chairman and CEO)
Products	Clothing & Fashion retailer
Revenue	€23.311 billion (2016)[1]
Operating income	€4.021 billion (2016)[1]
Net income	€3.161 billion (2016)[1]
Total assets	€19.621 billion (2016)[1]
Total equity	€12.752 billion (2016)[1]
Owner	Amancio Ortega (59%)
Number of employees	162,450 (2016)[1]
Subsidiaries	Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, Uterqüe
Website	www.inditex.com

Inditex, the biggest fashion group in the world, operates over 7,200 stores in 93 markets worldwide.[3][4][5] The company's flagship store is Zara, but it also owns the chains Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius and Uterqüe. The majority of its stores are corporate-owned, while franchises are mainly conceded in countries where corporate properties cannot be foreign-owned.[6]

The company operates a unique business model: instead of committing a large percentage of production for the next fashion season, the company commits a small amount and uses customer feedback and an efficient production network to replenish stores with new and different products weekly.[5] New styles are prototyped in just 5 days and 60% of the manufacturing happens locally to shorten lead-times.[7] In Zara stores, it can take a new garment as little as 15 days to go from design and production to store shelves.[8]

History

Early history

Amancio Ortega started in the clothing industry in the early 1960s while working for a local shirt maker in A Coruña, Spain.[9] Ortega began developing his own designs and he and his wife, Rosalia Mera, began making clothes from their home.[6][10] Ortega had saved up enough money to open a small factory and sold garments to his former employer amongst others.[6]

In 1975, the couple opened their first store, Zara, which produced popular fashion at low prices.[6][8] The following year, Zara was incorporated and began opening more stores and factories in Spain.[6] Later that year, after Ortega noticed the growing importance of computers, a local professor, José María Castellano, was hired to grow the company's computing power.[6][11]

1980–2000

In the 1980s the company implemented a new design and distribution method that drastically reduced the time between design, production, and arrival at retail sites.[12] The system was designed by Castellano who became the CEO of the company in 1984. In 1985, Industria de Diseno Textil S.A. or Inditex was created as a holding company for Zara and its manufacturing plants.[13] In 1988, the company began expanding internationally with the opening of a Zara store in Porto, Portugal.[14] In 1990, the company owned footwear collection, Tempe, populated in the children's section of Zara stores.[15] In 1991, Inditex created the company Pull and Bear, a casual menswear company.[16][17] Later that year, the company also acquired a 65 per cent share in the upscale Massimo Dutti brand. Inditex created Lefties in 1993; the name is taken from the term leftovers and it was created to sell old Zara clothing.[18] In 1995, Inditex purchased the remaining Massimo Dutti shares and began expanding the brand to include a women's line.[19] In 1998, Inditex launched the Bershka brand that was aimed at urban hip fashion.[20] The company bought Stradivarius in 1999, a youthful female fashion brand.[6]

2001–present

Inditex had its initial public offering (IPO) in 2001, on the Bolsa de Madrid.[21] The IPO sold 26 per cent of the company to public investors, the company was valued at €9 billion.[22] The same year, the company launched the lingerie and women's clothing store Oysho.[23][24]

In 2003, Inditex launched the Zara Home brand, which offers bedding, cutlery, glassware and other home decoration accessories.[25] In 2004, with the opening of store number 2,000 in Hong Kong, Inditex had established its presence in 56 countries.[26]

In 2005, CEO Jose Maria Castellano stepped down from the position to oversee expansion plans, he was replaced by current CEO Pablo Isla.[27] Inditex launched Uterque in the summer of 2008, the brand specializes in women's accessories.[28] During the same year, the company opened its 4,000th store in Tokyo after doubling in size within four years.[26] In 2011, Ortega, the founder of the business and majority shareholder, stepped down as deputy chairman and CEO Isla handles day-to-day operations.[26] Later that year, the company opened a store in Australia, a move that would put the company on five continents and in 77 countries.[29] After the 2013 Savar building collapse, Inditex was one of the thirty-eight companies who signed the Accord on Factory and Building Safety in Bangladesh.[30]

As of 2019, Inditex is the biggest fashion retailer in the world by revenue.[31]

International presence

In 1989, a year after entering Portugal, the company entered the U.S. market[32] and expanded into France in 1990.[6] Expansion continued to Mexico in 1992 and Greece in 1993. In 1994, Inditex opened stores in Belgium and Sweden.[33] By 1997, the company had expanded to Malta, Cyprus, Norway and Israel.[12] In 1998, expansion continued to the UK, Turkey, Argentina, Venezuela, the Middle East and Japan.[12] Canada, Germany, Poland, Saudi Arabia and several South American countries received stores in 1999.[33][34] In 2016, Inditex announced that they planned to open stores in Vietnam, New Zealand, Paraguay, Aruba and Nicaragua.[4]

The company opened stores in Italy, Luxembourg and Jordan in 2001. In 2003, Inditex opened stores in Russia, Slovakia and Malaysia.[34] The following year Latvia, Hungary, and Panama amongst other countries where stores opened, including the 2,000th store in Hong Kong.[34] By 2006, the company had expanded into mainland China.[35] In 2010, the company opened their 5,000th location in Rome[26] and its first in India.[35] The first stores in Australia and South Africa opened in 2011.[29] The company's expansion continued to the Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Armenia, Ecuador, Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2012.[34][36] In 2014, Inditex opened stores in Albania.[37]

Online sales

In 2007, Inditex launched the Zara Home online retail store.[38] Zara joined the e-commerce marketplace in September 2010, launching websites in Spain, the UK, Portugal, Italy, Germany and France.[39][40] In November 2010, Zara's online presence grew to include Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.[41] In September 2011, Inditex brought Zara's e-commerce platform to the U.S.,[42] as well as adding the brands Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stadivarius, Oysho and Uterqüe to the e-commerce space.[43] As of February 2016, Inditex operates e-commerce sites in 28 markets and plans to add 12 more by April.[44][45][46] In September 2018, Inditex announced to sell all its brands online by 2020, even in places where it does not own any stores.[47][48]

Marketing Strategy

Inditex avoids magazine advertising, with print campaigns only occurring on billboards in certain regions like U.S. and in-store. Endorsements for celebrities to wear its labels are budgeted instead. The company also invests heavily in prime commercial location with fashion forward window displays for optimum high street visibility and product turnaround.

Inditex and plagiarism

Until 2017 it was only expressions of disappointment and anger in the media by those involved [49], but in 2017 Zara Home Belgium was indeed convicted of plagiarism by a Brussels Court. Quote from a Belgian newspaper, De Tijd : “It is a unique precedent in the sense that, perhaps far beyond Belgium, it is the first time that a fast retailer has been convicted of something like this by a court of law.” [50][51][52][53][54]

Brands

Under the Inditex umbrella are several brands that offer a variety of products aimed at different markets.[55]

Company	No. of shops[56]	Year of creation [57]	Market
Zara	2,232	1975	Fashion for men, women and children
Pull and Bear	982	1991	Casual laid-back clothing and accessories for the young
Massimo Dutti	769	1991 (acquired)	Clothing and accessories for cosmopolitan men and women
Bershka	1,096	1998	Blends urban styles and modern fashion for young women and men
Stradivarius	1,015	1999 (acquired)	Casual and feminine clothes for young women
Oysho	646	2001	Lingerie, casual outerwear, loungewear, gymwear & swimwear and original accessories
Zara Home	563	2003	Home goods and decoration objects
Uterqüe	82	2008	High-quality fashion accessories at attractive prices

Inditex brands

• 
  Zara store in Brussels (Belgium)
• 
  Pull&Bear store in Shanghai (China)
• 
  Massimo Dutti store in Paris (France)
• 
  Bershka store in Taiwan
• 
  Stradivarius store in Greece
• 
  Oysho store in Stockholm (Sweden)
• 
  Uterqüe store in Valladolid (Spain)

Corporate affairs

Board of Directors

Bold indicates a company shareholder and the representative will be listed below.

Member	Title(s)	Member Since	Shares Held	Notes
Mr. Pablo Isla	Chairman & CEO of Inditex Board Member of Telefónica, S.A.	June 2005	1,805,302	[58]
Mr. Jose Arnau Sierra	Deputy Chairman of Inditex First Executive of Grupo Pontegadea Director of GARTLER, S.L. Member of the Board of Trustees of Fundacion Amancio Ortega Gaona	June 2012	30,000
Mr. Amancio Ortega	Founder & Board Member of Inditex	June 1985	1,848,000,315
Pontegadea Inversiones, S.L. Ms. Flora Perez Marcote	Board Member of Inditex	December 2015	1,558,637,990
Baroness Kingsmill CBE	Board Member of Inditex Member of the supervisory board of EON Non-executive director of International Airlines Group SA Chairman of Mondo Member of the International Advisory Board of the Spanish Business School (lESE)	July 2016
Mr. Jose Luis Duran Schulz	Board Member of Inditex Independent Director & Member of the Audit Committee of Orange	July 2015	1,700
Mr. Rodrigo Echenique Gordillo	Board Member of Inditex Chairman of NH Hoteles	July 2014
Mr. Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros Bernaldo de Quiros	Board Member of Inditex Chairman of Fraternidad-Muprespa Board Member of Acciona, S.A. Board Member of Schindler Espana Board Member of Yell Group	May 1997	150,000
Mr. Emilio Saracho Rodriguez de Torres	Board Member of Inditex Head of Investment Banking of JPMorgan Europe, Middle East, & Africa, Ltd. Executive Committee Member of Investment Bank Executive Committee Member of JPMorgan Chase Deputy-CEO of EMEA	June 2010

See also

•  Companies portal

References

1. "Financial Data" (pdf). Inditex. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
2. Butler, Sarah (14 December 2013). "Inditex: Spain's Fashion Powerhouse You've Probably Never Heard Of". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
3. "International presence - inditex.com". www.inditex.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
4. "Zara Owner Inditex Sees Profits Jump as Sales Soar". BBC. 9 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
5. Abnett, Kate; Amed, Imran (30 March 2015). "Inditex:Agile Fashion Force". Business of Fashion. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
6. "Industria de Diseno Textil S.A. History". Funding Universe. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
7. Fashion Business Education (4 January 2017), The Zara Way: How Inditex beats the competition (Business model), retrieved 28 June 2017
8. Frayer, Lauren (12 March 2013). "The Reclusive Spanish Billionaire Behind Zara's Fast Fashion Empire". NPR. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
9. "Amancio Ortega Gaona is One of the 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry in 2018". The Business of Fashion. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
10. Baigorri, Manuel (15 August 2013). "Rosalia Mera, Who Was Spain's Richest Woman, Dies at 69". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
11. Buck, Tobias (18 June 2014). "Fashion:A Better Business Model". Financial Times. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
12. Ozkurt, Tolga (2010). The Last Retail Evolution. Editrice Le Fonti. pp. 47–49. ISBN 978-88-6109-075-0.
13. Hansen, Suzy (9 November 2012). "How Zara Grew Into the World's Largest Fashion Retailer". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
14. Ryan, Orla (23 May 2001). "Spain's Retail Success Story". BBC News. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
15. "Company History". Tempe Groupo Inditex. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
16. "Company History". Pull and Bear. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
17. "Pull and Bear First UK Store". Fashion United. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
18. Sowray, Bibby (19 March 2014). "Lefties:The Zara Outlet You Never Knew About". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 28 June 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
19. "Annual Report Massimo Dutti". Inditex. 1998. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
20. "Bershka About". Inditex. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
21. Vitzthum, Carlta; Ascarelli, Silvia (29 April 2015). "Inditex Sets IPO Price Range Amid Strong Market Demand". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
22. Heller, Richard (28 May 2001). "Inside Zara". Forbes. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
23. "About Oysho". FashionBi. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
24. Loeb, Walter (30 March 2015). "Zara Leads in Fast Fashion". Forbes. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
25. Barker, Barbara (16 June 2003). "Spanish Clothing Manufacturer Inditex Enters New Territory With Zara Home". HFN the Weekly Newspaper. Home Furnishing Network. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
26. Gomez, Luis (14 August 2012). "The Man Who Dresses the World". El Pais. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
27. Crawford, Leslie (26 September 2005). "Castellano Steps Down From Inditex". Financial Times. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
28. Moreau, Raphael (22 September 2008). "Retail in Practice:H&M and Inditex's Global Expansion Strategies". The Retail Digest. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
29. Tartaglia, Lisa (18 April 2011). "Zara's Australian Entrance to Challenge Local Retailers". The Conversation. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
30. Burke, Jason; Hammadi, Saad; Neville, Simon (13 May 2013). "Fashion Chains Sign Accord to Help Finance Safety in Bangladesh Factories". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
31. "Fast Retailing overcomes H&M as world's second largest fashion retailer". www.themds.com. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
32. Lauren Sherman (24 March 2015). "America's Favorite Foreign Retailers". Forbes. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
33. "Fashion Chain Zara Reclaims the Glory of Spain". Wharton University of Pennsylvania. 24 April 2003. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
34. "Inditex: Our History". Inditex. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
35. Saumya Roy (29 July 2010). "Fast Fashion: Zara in India". Forbes. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
36. "Inditex to Open Stores in Bosnia and Herzegovina". RetailWeek. 23 February 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
37. Lukasz Izakowski (3 April 2014). "Inditex Enters the Albanian Market". Retail Net. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
38. "Zara Home to Launch its Online Platform in Australia". Retail News Asia. 12 July 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
39. Sarah Morris (18 March 2015). "Zara-Owner Inditex to Trim Investment After Strong Sales". Reuters. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
40. Lauren Sherman (9 June 2010). "Zara Will Finally Offer E-Commerce, But Not to US Customers". Fashionista. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
41. Christopher Bjork (22 September 2010). "Zara Tries a Fast One on the Net". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
42. Allison Enright (6 September 2011). "Zara Launches E-Commerce Operations in the U.S." Internet Retailer. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
43. Olivier Guyot (18 September 2011). "Inditex Repartriates its E-commerce Services". Fashion Mag. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
44. "Zara Owner Inditex Profits up 5%". BBC. 18 March 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
45. Alonso, Triana (14 December 2015). "Inditex to Consolidate Its E-commerce Business in 2016". Fashion Mag. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
46. "Inditex Launches New Online Stores in Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania and Sweden Today". Inditex. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
47. Editorial, Reuters. "Zara owner Inditex to sell all its brands online by 2020". U.S. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
48. CNBC (4 September 2018). "Zara owner Inditex to sell all its brands online by 2020". CNBC. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
49. "zara stealing designs copying independent artists | boredpanda". Retrieved 16 June 2020.
50. "Zara Home co-opts design by Flemish artisan | Flanders Today". www.flanderstoday.eu. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
51. Bradshaw, Lisa (2017). "Belgian artisan wins Zara plagiarism court case". The Bulletin.
52. "Limburgse houtsnijder dwingt Zara op de knieën". Het Laatste Nieuws. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
53. "Vlaamse houtsnijder dwingt modeketen Zara op de knieën". Het Nieuwsblad Mobile (in Dutch). Retrieved 18 May 2020.
54. Nederlandstalige Rechtbank van Koophandel Brussel Read online
55. "International presence - inditex.com". www.inditex.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
56. "Presencia internacional". inditex.com. 2016. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
57. "Our History - inditex.com". www.inditex.com. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
58. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 October 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links

• Official website