Inditex International Expansion

Inditex’s efficiency is the result of a more profitable investment strategy. By owning all the stores and manufacturing sites it is able to achieve control over all production processes and costs. The high number of stores may be also traced back to the increasing value of the property because Zara only buys stores in strategic areas (shopping malls, shopping arcades, pedestrian districts etc.) where competition boosts rents. Therefore total assets of Zara increase as well.

Zara is a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer based in Arteixo, Galicia. Founded by Amancio Ortega and Rosalia Mera in 1975, it is the main brand of the Inditex group and also the world’s largest apparel retailer (Inditex). It is one of the first store’s to showcase low-priced look alike products of high-end clothing brands. Later on, it was viewed as an ‘instant fashion’ company as it revised its logo, manufacturing, and distribution process along with improvements that included information technology and the use of designer groups instead of individuals. Beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability; over the years it has remained loyal to its core values expressed in these 4 simple words. With its current portfolio of 2,169 stores worldwide, Zara generated revenue of about US$15.9 billion in 2016. Its target market is young, price-sensitive, and highly responsive to the latest trends (Harbott). They hold a strong competitive advantage over other retailers because they don’t define their target market on the basis of age or lifestyle segmentation, providing them a relatively broader market to target.

Zara is a fashion company founded by Amancio Ortega in Spain in 1975. It is part of Inditex holding company, a large fashion retail chain that operates five other clothing brands. Since its inception, Zara has been financially very successful as it contributes the most to Inditex’s overall revenue. Also, Zara’s fast growth is represented by its massive global presence; it has stores all over the world from Americas to Middle East to Europe, its principal market. In my analysis, Zara’s competitive advantage lies in its ability to mass produce a large range of highly demanded latest designer clothes faster than its other competitors in the industry. By virtue of being first in the

Inditex, the owner of Zara, first started out in the dressmaking and textiles industry before opening the first Zara store in Spain in 1975. Since then, Zara has been extremely successful in the fashion industry throughout the entire world. The first US store opened in New York City in 1989 and Zara has been expanding continuously. The first logistics center for Zara was built in 1984 and encompassed about 10,000 square meters. The founders, Amancio Ortega and Rosalia Mera, prides the company on the idea of fast fashion which incorporates a distribution system that needs to keep up with the continually changing fashion trends.

Inditex, the owner of Zara, first started out in the dressmaking and textiles industry before opening the first Zara store in Spain in 1975. The founders, Amancio Ortega and Rosalia Mera, pride themselves on the idea of fast fashion: incorporating a distribution system that keeps up with continually-changing fashion trends. Zara has a very centralized headquarters in Arteixo, Spain. This allows Zara to have a good grasp on the business processes. They focus on speed and responsiveness by delivering quick and small batches of clothing to stores at precise times. The first logistics center for Zara was built in 1984 and encompassed about 10,000 square meters. Since then, Zara has been extremely successful in the fashion industry, winning over the hearts in Europe and then working to expand to Asia and the U.S. The first US store opened in New York City in 1989, although only a dozen exist in America today.

In 1975, Amancio Ortega opened the first Zara store in Spain's remote northwest town of La Coruna, home to Zara's headquarters. Having already worked in the textile industry for two decades, his experience led him to design a system in which he could control every aspect of the supply chain, from design and production to distribution and retailing. He knew, for example, that in the textile business, the biggest mark-ups were made by wholesalers and retailers. He was determined to maintain control over these activities.

With annual growth of around 20 percent in both sales and number of stores, Zara was finding that strategy increasingly difficult to execute. Part of the Inditex group of fashion distributors, it currently has more than 1,100 stores in 68 countries. With so much volume flowing through the supply chain, the

· Zara – the flagship brand of Spain based Inditex group, founded by Amancio Ortega Gaona and opened its first store in 1975.

Inditex itself is a huge fashion retailer company which owns 8 brands namely Zara, Pull &Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and last but not the least Uterque. Amancio Ortega is the founder of Inditex, which was established in 1963. Amancio Ortega adapted unique business model, which were innovative and flexible. This made Inditex one of the biggest retailers in the world. In 1975 Inditex established Zara’s first store in downtown A Coruna, Spain. Zara offers fashionable designs for men, women, and kids. They also sell accessories to complete their product lines.

Inditex, Industrias de Diseño Textil SA, is a group of almost one hundred companies dedicated to the different activities encompassed by the business of designing, manufacturing and distributing textile goods.

The firm's stores answer to popular trends by telling designers in Spain what customers are asking for locally. Inditex responds in about two weeks with new designs. Amancio Ortega Gaona, Spain's wealthiest businessman, founded Zara in 1975 and later created Inditex as a holding company. He got his start in the clothing business at the age of 13, when he went to work for a local shirtmaker in A Coruna , Spain, delivering the shop's goods, which included lingerie and dressing gowns. Ortega worked his way up to become an assistant manager, then shop manager, by the early 1960s. These positions gave Ortega experience not only in dealing directly with customers but also in purchasing fabrics and other materials for the shop's line of apparel.

• Flagship enterprise of Inditex (2001 IPO) • Sales of 3.2 billion €, EBIT of 476.1 million € in 2003 and EBIT margin of 14.8%. • HQ and central distribution in La Coruña (Galicia – northwestern corner of Spain) • Women’s, men’s and children’s wear • Over 724 stores in 56 countries

The world’s largest fashion retailer, Zara’s Indian unit Inditex trent which is a 51:49 Joint venture partnership between Spanish retailer Inditex SA with Tata Group’s retail arm trent has witnessed a phenomenal rise in India’s fashion retail sector. Incorporated in 2009-2010, Zara India has been the fastest fashion brand in India to clock profits. In the financial year 2011, Zara India made net profits of 22.5 crore while in the financial year 2012, it made net profits of 38.3 crore on sales of 260 crore. In the year 2013, Zara clocked a staggering 56% growth in sales as it earned net profits of 45.19 crore on annual sale of 411.19 crore. According to Economic Times, this is “over six times more than the country's largest apparel brand Louis Philippe and a tad higher than the country's largest department chain Shoppers Stop”. Zara has 13 stores in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore. It is believed that the company is

Zara employs one of the greatest and most successful operations strategy in the retail industry is the strategy employed by Zara. Zara being the flagship brand of a Spanish fashion retail giant, Inditex, (Industrias de Deseno Texti S.A.), was founded in 1975 and is engaged in designing textiles, manufacturing and distribution (Dutta. D, 2002). Zara started as a single shop in La Coruna but rapidly expanded to 68 countries. The company primarily operates in the Europe zone, where about 80% of its sales are made with LaCoruna, which is still home of its central offices. Its stores are opened each day and known as one of the fastest growing fashion retailers in Europe. Zara’s entire business operations, designing, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution process and retailing, it gained a couple of successful factors that include: a

Inditex has a total of 1,558 stores operating in 45 countries out of which 550 stores are of Zara. Inditex’s major sales contribution is Zara accounting for 73.3%. Zara presents new style clothes for Men, Women, and Children