In March this year, a fashion empire that started life on a kitchen table in a downtrodden corner of northwest Spain was named International Retailer of the Year at the Oscars of the retail industry, the Oracle Retail Week Awards.
That clothing company was Zara, which had been chosen by some of the biggest names in the industry, including Andy Clarke, the chief executive of Asda, and Terry Duddy, the chief executive of Home Retail Group.
Only 15 years after opening its first store in the UK, Zara’s parent company, Inditex, has grown into a global giant with a market cap of almost €65bn (£55bn), with shares rising from €60 in 2007 to €103.
Even more remarkable, however, is that Zara has achieved this growth by staying true to its Spanish roots, rather than by outsourcing manufacturing to China, the path taken by so many other mainstays of the British high street in recent decades.
Unlike, for example, M&S, which manufactures much of its clothing through third parties overseas, Zara produces more than half its products at its own manufacturing base outside the port city of La Coruna in northern Spain.
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From this base, which allows the company to compete with the sprawling factories of China, Inditex has set the benchmark for “fast fashion”, taking trends from the catwalk to the shop floor within two weeks.
Date: August 18, 2013