Zara - apparel and textile industry company news 
CANADA: Trimera to speed domestic design and production
10 February 2012
Apparel maker Trimera Group is opening two domestic development and production facilities next month to provide customers with on-site design centres as well as seamless knitting capabilities to help cut the time it takes to commercialise, test and launch products.
China's new five-year plan to guide industry expansion
31 January 2012
Domestic market expansion, new materials development and the transfer of production bases are all priorities under the 12th five-year plan (2011 to 2015) for the domestic textile industry, released by mainland China's ministry of industry and information technology earlier this month.
PERU: Inditex opens first Zara store
30 January 2012
Inditex has announced that it has entered Peru with a Zara store in Lima's Jockey Plaza shopping centre.
ISRAEL: Elbit Trade sells Gap franchise to Gottex Models
12 January 2012
Israeli Gap franchisee Elbit Trade has sold the Gap business to swimwear manufacturer Gottex Models.
just-style management briefing: Manufacturing winners and losers in 2011
19 December 2011
Established skills and tradition were not enough to save some apparel makers from layoffs and factory closures in 2011. But acquisitions, an environmental focus and international expansion helped others to build on a solid recovery from the recession.
BANGLADESH: Compensation sought after Zara factory deaths
19 December 2011
Charity campaigners are calling on Spanish retail giant Inditex, owner of the Zara fashion chain, to help the families of garment workers killed after a boiler explosion at a factory in Bangladesh.
Top stories on just-style this week...
16 December 2011
Top stories on just-style this week included a mass fainting at a Cambodian garment factory, concerns over falling cotton demand and speculation around the future ownership of Blacks Leisure.
SPAIN: Asian and online growth lifts Inditex 9-month profit
14 December 2011
Spanish retail giant Inditex has seen its profit rise 10% in the first nine months of its financial year, boosted by expansion in Asia and growth in its online operations.
CHINA: Quality tests identify mis-labelled brands
12 December 2011
Spanish retailer Zara has again been accused of selling "sub-standard" clothes in China after tests were said to have found garments labelled with incorrect fibre content.
US: WRAP CEO Steve Jesseph to retire
30 November 2011
Steve Jesseph, the CEO of social and environmental training and certification group Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), is to retire at the end the year.
THE FLANARANT: Is own label about to collapse?
16 November 2011
With more and more own label apparel retailers eyeing growth in Asia and Latin America to make up for shortfalls in their domestic markets, Mike Flanagan asks whether a business formula that's running out of steam at home will now work abroad. Especially if it's fuelled by designers who have little connection to those foreign customers.
SOUTH AFRICA: Inditex opens first Zara store
11 November 2011
Inditex has opened its first Zara store in South Africa in the Sandton City shopping mall.
Australian retailers facing a perfect storm
7 November 2011
Australian apparel retailers are facing a perfect storm. The country is only now seeing signs of the global economic crisis, the strong Australian dollar is driving shoppers to look at international online retailers - and the world's major fast fashion retailers are plotting their entries. Petah Marian reports on how firms are faring.
Interview: Elle Roseby, CEO, Sportsgirl
7 November 2011
Trendy Australian fashion retailer Sportsgirl has spent the last five years working to establish a presence in all areas of its customers' lives. CEO Elle Roseby spoke to Petah Marian about how the 63-year-old brand has managed to remain relevant for its internet-savvy shoppers.
Speaking with style: Bernie Brookes, CEO, Myer
7 November 2011
Bernie Brookes, the CEO of Myer, Australia's largest department store chain, speaks to just-style about how the retailer is working to improve its operations and tempt shoppers into its stores.
TAIWAN: Inditex opens first Zara store
7 November 2011
Inditex opened its first Zara store in Taiwan on Friday (4 November), based at Taipei 101, one of the world's tallest skyscrapers.
Mexican shoe makers lifted by Inditex expansion
31 October 2011
Tempe Grupo Inditex, the shoe-making franchise of Spanish fashion giant Inditex, plans to triple its footwear production in Mexico. Meanwhile, other international brands such as Nike, Steve Madden and Puma are also mulling boosting their output in the Aztec country, whose Guanajuato region has become well-known for making high-quality leather shoes.
VIETNAM: TNG sees 9-month revenues jump 98.4%
26 October 2011
One of Vietnam's leading garment manufacturers, TNG Investment and Trading JSC (TNG), has seen its revenues jump by 98.4% in the first three-quarters of this year, to VND915.38bn (US$45m).
THE FLANARANT: Local knowledge is key to retail success
25 October 2011
With western retailers increasingly optimistic about business in emerging markets, does it also hold true that the industry will soon "be sourcing everywhere and selling everywhere"? Not according to Mike Flanagan, who believes most developing markets will stay small for a long time, and that locally-owned retailers will be the long-term beneficiaries.
FOCUS: Zara grows in Brazil while Gap and H&M dither
7 October 2011
Over the past five years, retail sales of apparel generated stronger incremental growth in Brazil than anywhere else in the world except China. Yet while Inditex is reaping the rewards of double-digit growth, H&M and Gap Inc have yet to grab a piece of the action. Has the best of the opportunity slipped away? asks Magdalena Kondej, head of apparel research at Euromonitor International.
Uniqlo means business with ambitious global plans
21 September 2011
Fast Retailing, owner of the Uniqlo casual clothing chain, thinks big, talks big and has big ambitions - and analysts believe the company does indeed have what it takes to become the biggest clothing retailer in the world within the next decade.
SPAIN: Inditex plans market entries on strong H1
21 September 2011
Fashion retailer Inditex has revealed plans to enter a number of new markets as it recorded a steep rise in first half profit.
BRAZIL: Zara owner ramps up supply chain controls
20 September 2011
Spanish retailer Inditex, owner of the Zara fashion stores, has outlined a number of steps intended to stamp out exploitation in its Brazilian supply chain following last month's discovery that some of its clothing production was subcontracted to illegal sweatshops.
In the money: Esprit on long road to transformation
16 September 2011
While fashion brand Esprit is taking steps to get back on track by exiting North America and disposing its retail operations in a number of other countries, it still has a long way to go before it regains a steady footing.
UK: Retailers urged to take action to end sweatshops
16 September 2011
Campaigners are using the start of London Fashion Week to step up calls for high street retailers to take more action to end poverty pay for overseas workers.
Global sourcing pledges for Mexico's shoe sector
13 September 2011
Mexico's leading footwear fair Sapica closed last week with more promises from global shoe brands to switch their sourcing to Leon, the nation's manufacturing hub, in coming months.
GERMANY: Bershka opens “green” Berlin store
9 September 2011
Inditex-owned fashion chain Bershka has opened its first store in Berlin and made its debut in South Korea.
SWEDEN: H&M ranked world's top user of organic cotton
7 September 2011
Swedish fashion retailer H&M was ranked as the world's number one user of organic cotton last year - taking it closer to its goal of only using cotton from more sustainable sources by 2020.
EGYPT: Arafa to set up shirt plant with Ermenegildo Zegna
6 September 2011
Arafa Holding, Egypt's biggest garment producer and exporter, has signed a deal with Italian luxury men's wear group Ermenegildo Zegna to set up a shirt manufacturing company.
WORLD: Organic cotton market jumps 20% in 2010
6 September 2011
Neither the recession nor unstable economies have put a damper on the fast-growing organic textiles industry, according to a new report, which shows the sector grew by 20% to an estimated $5.61bn in 2010.
Related research
Women's Outerwear in Argentina
Overall there is a perception that Argentinean women are the most elegant and refined from the Americas and that they are also the most devoted to aesthetics and personal care. It is thought that they tend to have a more European attitude towards fashion and all kinds of social activities, but with an additional Latin influence. Thus, Argentinean women tend to be a very demanding market. Global companies, such as Zara, or Nike, have opened local offices in order to help tailor their products...
Childrenswear in Sweden
Childrenswear was one of the fastest growth categories in apparel in 2010; this was a result of economic recovery, but also because children were becoming increasingly fashion-aware, and demanded more clothes from their parents.
Clothing Accessories in Sweden
Sales of clothing accessories increased in line with other clothing categories during 2010, as the Swedish economy recovered strongly.
