...CASE STUDY : Multinational Outsourcing and CSR. Inditex: The worldwide outsourcing garment industry and social community development in Morocco “Intermón claims that pressures on foreign clothing suppliers are smothering employees. […] In Morocco, where Cortefiel, Inditex (Zara), Mango and Induyco (El Corte Inglés) manufacture their products, a Tangier based textile factory sold a pair of slacks to large Spanish retailers for 3.3 euros three years ago; today, the same item sells for 2 euros. Female factory workers work 12 to 16 hours a day during the high season, because orders from Spain demand six ‐ day delivery terms in order to suit shop window change schedules.” (El País Newspaper, “Mujeres en Aprietos”, 10 ‐ 02 ‐ 2004) towards process outsourcing that responded to its characteristic labor ‐ intensive production and current competitive pressures for cost reduction and flexibility. Sector companies had been forced to redesign their business strategies, focusing on performance measurement, new competence and skill development, product quality improvements and more strategically oriented human resources management. Yet, this new strategic focus entailed unprecedented risks, especially as regards labor practices, environmental care and unfair competition. As multinational companies embarked on this process, multilateral agencies and global NGOs had begun to look into and report on wrongful practices by large corporations...
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...employees A nnual Report 2009 6 14 16 Global Reporting Initiative Indicators Letter from the Chairman Inditex business model 18 IP 53 IC 54 Inditex Commitment 163 Inditex Performance 20 26 28 46 Summary of 2009 financial year Milestones for the year Commercial concepts International presence 56 66 124 136 Customers, shareholders and society Corporate Social Responsibility Human Resources Environmental dimension 4 Inditex Annual Report 2009 164 LD 309 Legal Documentation 167 233 296 303 Economic and financial report Corporate governance report Activities Report Audit and Control Committee Activities Report Nomination And Remuneration Committee 308 Verification of the audit of GRI indicators 5 G lobal Reporting Initiative Indicators in 2002. Using this guide, Inditex With transparency as the fundamental principle in its relationship with society, Inditex has followed the Global Reporting Initiative indicators since it published its first Sustainability Report attempts to provide detailed, organised access to the information on its activity to all its stakeholders. Within the general indicators, specific indicators for the textile and footwear sector have been included, identified in the following way: Specific indicator for the sector Specific indicator comment for the sector 6 Inditex Annual Report 2009 Pages 14-15 267-273, 20-25 1. Strategy and analySiS 1.1 Statement from the most senior...
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...men/women Overall energy consumtion (Tj) Number of suppliers Social investment (in millions of euros) 5,527 483 82 109,512 20.5/79.5% 3,381 1,398 14 5,044 437 77 100,138 19.5/80.5% 3,230 1,337 11 Highlights Sales 13,793 12,527 9,435 10,407 11,048 10,000 7,500 15,000 12,500 5,000 2,500 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Sales by geographical Rest of Europe 45% Spain 25% America Asia and the rest of the 12% world 18% Net profit 2,500 1,946 1,741 1,258 1,262 1,322 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Number of employees 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 79,517 109,512 100,138 92,301 89,112 Inditex´s Annual Report addresses its economic, social and environmental performance for the purposes of achieving the maximum transparency in its relationship with all its stakeholders annual report 2011 index 06 54 Letter from the Chairman | 08 Business model | 10 A look back over 2011 Customers Milestones for the year. International presence | 22 Suppliers | 70 Employees | 84 Retail formats. Zara. Pull&Bear. Shareholders. Economic Massimo Dutti. Bershka. Stradivarius. Osyho. Zara Home. Uterqüe. | 42 Community | 100 and financial report....
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...Inditex vs. Gap 1.Brief presentation of the two companies Inditex is a Spanish multinational clothing company,one of the largest fashion retailers, headquartered in Arteixo ,Galicia. The Inditex Group is made up of more than 100 companies operating in textile design, manufacturing and distribution. The companies brands are: Zara,Pull&Bear,Massimo Dutti,Bershka,Stradivarius,Oysho,Zara Home,Uterque. The first Zara shop opened in 1975 in A Coruña, Spain, a city in which the Group first began doing business and which is still home to its headquarters. Its stores can now be found in prime locations in more than 400 cities on five continents. Franchises are only conceded in countries where corporate properties can not be foreign-owned (in some Middle Eastern countries, for example). Most manufacturing is now in low labour cost countries, mainly in Morocco, China, and Turkey, although much production continues in Spain and Portugal, particularly for its Zara brand. In addition, Inditex has a factory for shoe design, production and distribution in the town of Elche, on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. GAP is an American multinational clothing and accessories retailer, headquartered in San Francisco ,California.The GAP is made up about 3,100 company-operated stores and over 300 franchise stores. The companies brands are: Gap,Banana Republic,Old navy,Piperlime,Athleta and INTERMIX. Donald and Doris Fisher opened the first Gap store on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco on August...
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...Title of the Report: Zara Case Study Report Name: SeJun Lee Executive Summary Zara is one of the largest international fashion companies in the world, and it belongs to Inditex, one of the world‟s largest distribution groups. This study reviews Zara`s external environment and analyses its internal organisation to make recommendations for improving its core competencies against competitors such as H&M and GAP. This study first reviews the Zara enterprise in terms of PEEST environmental factors, Porter‟s Five Forces and the fast fashion industry life cycle (ILC). The liberalisation of European Union import quotas has had a positive political impact on the fast fashion retail industry. However, rapid style changes generate waste. In addition, recent financial crises have made customers more sensitive to price and tending to buy lower priced goods. However, young people and new Asian customers are more attracted to fashionable clothes. Also, new technology is quickly adopted to survive in a fast-moving market. Using Porter‟s competitive analysis of five forces, the threats of new entrants and substitution are low, and customers‟ and suppliers‟ bargaining power are moderate. However, the intensity of competitive rivalry is quite high because similar fashion firms are competing. Fast fashion has a shorter life cycle for products than most industries. This spurs both creativity and product innovation but demands more efficiency and advanced technology to reduce...
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...operating profits, 18%. Although Gap, Inc. (Gap) began the millennium as the clear global leader in the apparel retail market with sales more than four times larger than those of H&M, H&M had grown quickly and passed Gap in 2009. However, Spain’s Inditex, with its fast-fashion chain, Zara, had done even better. It passed H&M in sales in 2005 and, by 2011, had also become more profitable. H&M had also lagged behind Inditex in supply pipeline speed, brand diversification, online retail presence, and expansion into China. Meanwhile, the world’s leading hypermarket chains, including Wal-Mart and Tesco, were making significant headway in apparel. In 2012, CEO Karl-Johan Persson, grandson of the company’s founder Erling Persson, promised increased expansion into underdeveloped markets, a stronger push to online retailing, and the launch of a major new retail brand. He noted, “We are looking forward to an exciting 2013 full of new opportunities. We have great respect for the macroeconomic climate and how it may affect consumption in many of our markets, but we believe strongly in our offering and are convinced that H&M will continue to maintain its strong position.”1 Whether Persson’s plans were enough to catch up with Inditex remained to be seen. H&M Early History Erling Persson, a former pen salesman, opened H&M’s first store in Sweden in 1947 to provide women’s fashionable clothes at very low prices. Over the years,...
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...ZARA COMPANY PROFILE Zara is a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer based in Arteixo, Galicia, and founded in 1975 byAmancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera. It is the flagship chain store of the Inditex group, The world's largest apparel retailer, the fashion group also owns brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Uterqüe, Stradivarius and Bershka. It is claimed that Zara needs just two weeks to develop a new product and get it to stores, compared to the six-month industry average, and launches around 10,000 new designs each year. Zara has resisted the industry-wide trend towards transferring fast fashion production to low-cost countries. Perhaps its most unusual strategy was its policy of zero advertising; the company preferred to invest a percentage of revenues in opening new stores instead. This has increased the idea of Zara as a "fashion imitator" company and low cost products. Lack of advertisement is also in contrast to direct competitors such as Uniqlo and United Colors of Benetton. Zara was described by Louis Vuitton Fashion Director Daniel Piette as "possibly the most innovative and devastating retailer in the world." Zara has also been described as a "Spanish success story" by CNN. Amancio Ortega opened the first Zara store in 1975 in a central street in downtown La Coruña, Galicia, Spain.[4] Ortega named his store Zorba after watching the classic film Zorba the Greek, but apparently there was a bar that was called the same, Zorba, two blocks away, and...
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...Fashion Industry Analysis From the Perspective of Business Model Dynamics Author: Lisa Gockeln University of Twente P.O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede The Netherlands ABSTRACT The fashion industry is a dynamic and volatile place, continuously exposed to macro-environmental factors that trigger fashion business models to change. The fast fashion model is currently at the forefront of the apparel market casting questions on whether its underlying philosophy is about to change as well. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify external drivers that might lead to such dynamic changes in the fast fashion model. Moreover, it will be investigated whether these may allude to a possible convergence to the newly emerged slow fashion model which is currently trying to penetrate the fashion market. The international retailer Zara has served as fast fashion representative for this analysis and has been examined for business model adjustments, which might have been triggered by macroenvironmental factors. It was found that especially social, environmental and technological factors have influenced developments in the fast fashion model and that it has indeed adopted slow fashion principles in some of its building blocks to respond to such emerging trends. The future of the fashion industry appears to be tailored by such externalities, continuously reshaping the fast fashion model to eventually arrive at a version that brings a long-lasting competitive edge. However...
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... the greater the demand for cheap products of its kind. — Georg Simmel, “Fashion” (1904) Inditex (Industria de Diseño Textil) of Spain, the owner of Zara and five other apparel retailing chains, continued a trajectory of rapid, profitable growth by posting net income of € 340 million on € revenues of € 3,250 million in its fiscal year 2001 (ending January 31, 2002). Inditex had had a heavily € oversubscribed Initial Public Offering in May 2001. Over the next 12 months, its stock price increased by nearly 50%—despite bearish stock market conditions—to push its market valuation to € 13.4 € billion. The high stock price made Inditex’s founder, Amancio Ortega, who had begun to work in the apparel trade as an errand boy half a century earlier, Spain’s richest man. However, it also implied a significant growth challenge. Based on one set of calculations, for example, 76% of the equity value implicit in Inditex’s stock price was based on expectations of future growth—higher than an estimated 69% for Wal-Mart or, for that matter, other high-performing retailers.1 The next section of this case briefly describes the structure of the global apparel chain, from producers to final customers. The section that follows profiles three of Inditex’s leading international competitors in apparel retailing: The Gap (U.S.), Hennes & Mauritz (Sweden), and Benetton (Italy). The rest of the case focuses on Inditex, particularly the business system and international expansion of the Zara chain that dominated...
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... the greater the demand for cheap products of its kind. — Georg Simmel, “Fashion” (1904) Inditex (Industria de Diseño Textil) of Spain, the owner of Zara and five other apparel retailing chains, continued a trajectory of rapid, profitable growth by posting net income of € 340 million on € revenues of € 3,250 million in its fiscal year 2001 (ending January 31, 2002). Inditex had had a heavily € oversubscribed Initial Public Offering in May 2001. Over the next 12 months, its stock price increased by nearly 50%—despite bearish stock market conditions—to push its market valuation to € 13.4 € billion. The high stock price made Inditex’s founder, Amancio Ortega, who had begun to work in the apparel trade as an errand boy half a century earlier, Spain’s richest man. However, it also implied a significant growth challenge. Based on one set of calculations, for example, 76% of the equity value implicit in Inditex’s stock price was based on expectations of future growth—higher than an estimated 69% for Wal-Mart or, for that matter, other high-performing retailers.1 The next section of this case briefly describes the structure of the global apparel chain, from producers to final customers. The section that follows profiles three of Inditex’s leading international competitors in apparel retailing: The Gap (U.S.), Hennes & Mauritz (Sweden), and Benetton (Italy). The rest of the case focuses on Inditex, particularly the business system and international expansion of the Zara chain that dominated...
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... the greater the demand for cheap products of its kind. — Georg Simmel, “Fashion” (1904) Inditex (Industria de Diseño Textil) of Spain, the owner of Zara and five other apparel retailing chains, continued a trajectory of rapid, profitable growth by posting net income of € 340 million on € revenues of € 3,250 million in its fiscal year 2001 (ending January 31, 2002). Inditex had had a heavily € oversubscribed Initial Public Offering in May 2001. Over the next 12 months, its stock price increased by nearly 50%—despite bearish stock market conditions—to push its market valuation to € 13.4 € billion. The high stock price made Inditex’s founder, Amancio Ortega, who had begun to work in the apparel trade as an errand boy half a century earlier, Spain’s richest man. However, it also implied a significant growth challenge. Based on one set of calculations, for example, 76% of the equity value implicit in Inditex’s stock price was based on expectations of future growth—higher than an estimated 69% for Wal-Mart or, for that matter, other high-performing retailers.1 The next section of this case briefly describes the structure of the global apparel chain, from producers to final customers. The section that follows profiles three of Inditex’s leading international competitors in apparel retailing: The Gap (U.S.), Hennes & Mauritz (Sweden), and Benetton (Italy). The rest of the case focuses on Inditex, particularly the business system and international expansion of the Zara chain that dominated...
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...| | CHILD LABOUR INTRODUCTION Child labour (U.S. child labor) refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries. Child labour was utilized to varying extents through most of history, but entered public dispute with the advent of universal schooling, with changes in working conditions during the industrial revolution, and with the emergence of the concepts of workers' and children's rights. In many developed countries, it is considered inappropriate or exploitative if a child below a certain age works (excluding household chores or school-related work). An employer is usually not permitted to hire a child below a certain minimum age. This minimum age depends on the country and the type of work involved. States ratifying the Minimum Age Convention adopted by the International Labour Organization in 1973, have adopted minimum ages varying from 14 to 16. Child labor laws in the United States set the minimum age to work in an establishment without restrictions and without parents' consent at age 16. * | Historical During the Industrial Revolution, children as young as four were employed in production factories with dangerous, and often fatal, working conditions. Based on this understanding of the use of children as labourers, it is now considered by wealthy countries to be a human rights violation, and is outlawed, while...
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...THE CHINESE MARKET FOR CLOTHING THE CHINESE MARKET FOR CLOTHING Abstract for trade information services ID=42692 International Trade Centre (ITC) The Chinese Market for Clothing. Geneva: ITC, 2012. xi, 92 p. (Technical Paper) Doc. No. SC-11-212.E Survey on Chinese market for clothing - describes the structure and characteristics of the domestic Chinese market for clothing; provides an analysis of the tariff structure of imports by product group; outlines special import regulations, customs procedures, transport, as well as requirements relevant to packaging, labelling, standards, and ethical trading; examines the market potential, the consumer preferences and behaviour; provides an overview of the distribution channels, the major brands, the procurement practices including the use of e-commerce and ICT procurement; highlights the key players in China's textiles and garment market, the possibilities for cooperation along the value chain, and the existing national support schemes; appendices include contacts details of sector related companies in China. Descriptors: Clothing, Standards, Packaging, Distribution, Procurement, Electronic Commerce, Consumer Behaviour, Market Surveys, China. For further information on this technical paper, contact Mr Matthias Knappe, (knappe@intracen.org) 2011 SITC-84 CHI English The International Trade Centre (ITC) is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. ITC, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland...
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...THE CHINESE MARKET FOR CLOTHING THE CHINESE MARKET FOR CLOTHING Abstract for trade information services ID=42692 International Trade Centre (ITC) The Chinese Market for Clothing. Geneva: ITC, 2012. xi, 92 p. (Technical Paper) Doc. No. SC-11-212.E Survey on Chinese market for clothing - describes the structure and characteristics of the domestic Chinese market for clothing; provides an analysis of the tariff structure of imports by product group; outlines special import regulations, customs procedures, transport, as well as requirements relevant to packaging, labelling, standards, and ethical trading; examines the market potential, the consumer preferences and behaviour; provides an overview of the distribution channels, the major brands, the procurement practices including the use of e-commerce and ICT procurement; highlights the key players in China's textiles and garment market, the possibilities for cooperation along the value chain, and the existing national support schemes; appendices include contacts details of sector related companies in China. Descriptors: Clothing, Standards, Packaging, Distribution, Procurement, Electronic Commerce, Consumer Behaviour, Market Surveys, China. For further information on this technical paper, contact Mr Matthias Knappe, (knappe@intracen.org) 2011 SITC-84 CHI English The International Trade Centre (ITC) is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. ITC, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland...
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...SAVONIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES UNIT OF BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION, KUOPIO THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT A case study of H&M Ding Huiru Business Administration Bachelor’s thesis International Business April 2011 2 SAVONIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES SAVONIA BUSINESS Degree Programme, option International Business Author(s) Ding Huiru Title of study The importance of strategic management, Case study of H&M Type of project Date Pages Thesis 27.4.2011 59+12 Supervisor(s) of study 1st Antti Iire 2nd Anneli Juutilainen Executive organization H&M in Kuopio,Finland Abstract Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) is a 100 billion Sweden company, engaged in designing and retailing of fashion apparel and accessories. The company offers a range of apparel, cosmetics, footwear and accessories for men, women, children and teenagers. H&M primarily operates in Europe, North America and Asia, and has a presence in over 38 countries. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and employs approximately 87,000 people on a full-time basis. This thesis focused on the strategic management of H&M company. The main research problem was to make an in-depth analysis of its marketing strategy and how to implement it. The main research method was a qualitative research by analyzing their company data, annual reports and making interviews with the manager, staffs and customers in Kuopio shop. The thesis starts with a general introduction...
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