How Zara Started The Story of a Spanish Brand That Conquered Fashion
Very few fashion brands have had quite such an impact on the industry as Zara. If you walk into a Zara store in Madrid, New York or Dubai you’ll see the very latest runway styles at very reasonable prices. Zara began as a single shop in a fairly unremarkable spot in Spain and the story of how that one shop grew into a global phenomenon is absolutely fascinating. Here’s how it all started and why it’s grown so rapidly.
A Humble Start for Amancio Ortega
Amancio Ortega was born in 1936 into a working class family who eventually settled in Galicia in NW Spain. As a lad he worked in a local shirt shop, doing the running around and getting a very good feel for how clothes are made and sold. What he saw in that shop was that people absolutely loved fashionable clothes but the vast majority of them simply couldn’t afford them.
The Workshop That Came Before Zara
In 1963 Ortega and his wife Rosalía Mera were running a small workshop making dressing gowns and lingerie (the business was called Confecciones GOA). It grew quite steadily. There’s a well known story that a big order was cancelled and they were left with a mountain of unsold stock. Rather than be like most businesses and just write it off, Ortega decided to open a shop to sell the goods directly to the customer. That was the lesson he learned about the importance of being close to the customer.
1975: The First Zara Store
The first Zara store opened in 1975 in A Coruña. Ortega was reportedly keen on calling it ‘Zorba’ but there was already a bar in the area with that name so the letters were just rearranged to become ‘Zara’. The concept was very simple in fact: to sell fashionable clothes which were essentially the latest high street fads, at prices that the average person could afford. The reaction was instant and the rest of Spain quickly saw the merits of the concept with further stores opening up all over the country.
Building Inditex and Going Global
In 1985 Ortega set up Inditex (Industria de Diseño Textil) to run Zara and its growing operations. The model was one of complete in-house control: design, production and distribution would all be in house rather than being outsourced. International expansion got under way very rapidly:
1988: First store outside Spain, in Porto, Portugal
1989: Entry into the United States
1990: Expansion into France
2001: Inditex listed on the Spanish stock market
Over the years Inditex has added a number of other brands to its portfolio (Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Stradivarius).
The Secret Behind Zara’s Success
Zara’s real strength is speed. Rather than plan their collections a year in advance they just watch what people are buying and react to that. An idea can go from concept to finished garment in a matter of weeks and the production runs are very small. New items are in the stores several times a week which keeps the range always fresh and gets the customer in the door. They spend a lot less on advertising than their competition and rely on excellent shop locations and really good window displays.
Zara Today
Zara is now one of the world’s largest fashion retailers with a very significant number of stores and a large online business (launched in 2010). They have a number of sustainability targets in place, relating to the use of more recycled and lower impact materials. Fast fashion is of course under the microscope in terms of waste and environmental impact and how Zara responds to that will be a huge factor in determining its future.
Conclusion
Zara’s story is all about the power of a clear idea to become a global business. It’s all down to listening to the customer, acting swiftly and having complete control of the supply chain. A single shop in Galicia is now a fashion leader to be found in high streets all over the world.
