Tag Archives: Inditex

Posted on by

Zara unveils its first pop-up store designed for ordering and collecting of online order

Zara unveils its first pop-up store designed for ordering and collecting of online order

 

  • Temporary store at Westfield Stratford introduces innovative technology  while groundbreaking flagship store is refurbished and extended

Arteixo, Spain, 2018-Jan-29 — /EPR Retail News/ — Tomorrow Zara unveils its first store anywhere in the world designed primarily for ordering and collecting of online orders. The store will be open until May at London’s Westfield  Stratford  shopping centre, while the chain’s flagship store in the centre is refurbished and extended.

The flagship store is being doubled in size to 4,500 square metres. When it reopens in May, it will feature a radical new store concept with technology at its heart designed to transform the customer shopping experience.

The chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, stressed the relevance of both concepts, saying that they mark “another milestone in our strategy of integrating our stores with the online world, which defines our identity as a business”.

The pop-up store spans nearly 200 square metres and offers a select choice of women’s and men’s clothing for online purchase directly in-store, along with the rest of the brand’s extensive fashion range.

Store staff will be on hand with mobile devices to assist customers, who will be given the choice of receiving their orders within the same day, if placed before 2pm, or the next day, if placed in the afternoon. Payments are also made easier thanks to an innovative card terminal system operated via Bluetooth. The store will also facilitate returns and exchanges.

Among other innovations, this pop-up store boasts a product recommendation system based on information screens embedded into mirrors. Once customers scan an item using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, the system can bring up, in the right size, multiple choices for coordinating and combining the item they are trying on with other garments and accessories.

Next week work will begin on expanding and refurbishing the existing Zara store in Westfield Stratford, which is due to re-open in May. The new store will stretch to 4,500 square metres and will be the first Zara store in the world to offer four sections: in addition to the traditional women’s, men’s and kids’ lines, Zara is adding a dedicated area for the collection of online orders, in keeping with the company’s online integration strategy.

This new concept attempts to further enhance the in-store shopping experience by adding new customer services. The store, which will feature a new interior design, will stand out for its two-storey façade without windows in the first floor, providing a transparent view of the store’s architectural features and collections. The glass façade on the second floor will be equipped with a number of sensors which will project images from the current collections onto the glass when shoppers approach it. It is also worth highlighting the back-lit ceiling designed to provide continuous and comfortable light.

The new store will feature an automated online order collection point serviced by two small warehouses which will enable shoppers to pick up purchases made on www.zara.com whenever it suits them. This system is designed around an optical barcode reader which scans the QR code or accepts the PIN codes received by customers when they place orders online. In just a few seconds, it delivers the order to a mailbox from which the customer can collect it. Behind the scenes, a dynamic robot moves through a small warehouse with the capacity to handle 2,400 packages simultaneously.

All this new technology is oriented towards creating a unique shopping experience in which the latest developments make  fashion trends stand out even more. Store customers will be able to pay using their mobile phones, via either the Zara app or the Inditex Group app, InWallet, and there will also be a self-checkout area to complement the regular cashier desks, which will speed up the payment process. This system will automatically identify the garments being purchased so that customers only have to confirm their items on a screen before using their card or mobiles to pay for them. Then they can choose to print out their receipts or store them automatically in their mobile handsets.

In keeping with Inditex’s eco-efficient store programme the Zara store in Stratford will also be equipped with smart systems for reducing emissions and saving energy.

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex marks the tenth anniversary of Jeunes programme

Inditex marks the tenth anniversary of Jeunes programme

 

  • The chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, met today with representatives of the various editions of the French programme in Paris, the city where this initiative took off 10 years ago, and told them that “we feel particularly proud of the example you give and the value we are generating together for the community and society”
  • The initiative is called ‘Jeunes’ in France and ‘Salta’ in the other 10 countries in which it operates in collaboration with 40 charities and NGOs and aims at training and providing work to groups of people who otherwise would have great difficulty entering the workplace

Arteixo, Spain, 2017-Dec-04 — /EPR Retail News/ — The chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, met in Paris with ‘graduates’ of the various editions of the Jeunes programme to mark the endeavour’s tenth anniversary. The initiative was set up in France a decade ago with the aim of training and providing in-store work experience to people at risk of social exclusion due to serious difficulties in accessing the job market.

Pablo Isla told the representatives that “all of us here at the Inditex Group feel particularly proud of the example you give”. He recalled the scope for internal promotion within the Group, adding “we are very pleased with the innovative nature of this programme and the value we are generating together for the community and society”.

The event was attended by all of the members of the last group of participants and representatives from the prior 20 groups who came together celebrate the tenth anniversary of this programme which to date has given work to 780 beneficiaries across the Group’s stores, factories and logistics centres; 67% of these youths are still working at the company and 7% have already been promoted.

The project was created in Paris in 2008 under the name Jeunes (Youths) and has since been rolled out in 11 other cities under the name of Salta (Leap): Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Milan, Athens, Hamburg, Warsaw, London, Lisbon, Mexico City, São Paulo and New York.

1,259 company employees have participated in the project over the last decade as volunteers, teachers, tutors or mentors. The endeavour has also boasted the participation of celebrities such as the French football side’s coach Raymond Domenech, the former cyclist Bernard Hinault, the mountain climber Edurne Pasaban, the painter Lita Cabellut and the dancer Nadia Adame, all of whom shared their tough experiences and how they overcame them with the participants. More than 40 charities and NGOs also collaborate with the initiative, helping with the selection process, as well as with the training and subsequent monitoring of the participants once on the job.

Contribution to community well-being

Salta is one of several initiatives which Inditex pursues under the umbrella of its community investment strategy, which is articulated mainly around education, community well-being and humanitarian aid programmes. These economic regeneration, humanitarian and educational projects benefitted 1.1 million people last year, underpinned by €40 million of investment.

Inditex collaborates with 367 non-profit entities to tackle different shared projects that the latter spearhead on the ground. The idea is to work together to further society’s development. In the past year, the Group assisted with 519 projects.

Contact:

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex continues its support to Médecins Sans Frontières’ medical and humanitarian relief works with €2.3 million contribution

Inditex continues its support to Médecins Sans Frontières’ medical and humanitarian relief works with €2.3 million contribution

 

Arteixo, Spain, 2017-Nov-28 — /EPR Retail News/ —

  • Inditex has renewed its support for Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) work with Syrian refugees in the Turkish province of Kilis, on Syrian border, for the fifth consecutive year
  • Inditex’s support also extends to the Al Salamah Hospital in Aleppo, northern Syria.
  • The contribution to the two projects in this region totals €900,000
  • In addition, Inditex is funding medical care and a project to supply clean drinking water to refugees from the Rohingya community in Bangladesh, reaching around 120,000 refugees. Funds have also been earmarked to support the fight against acute malnutrition in children in Jharkhand, north-east India
  • Inditex is also reiterating its long-standing support for MSF’s Emergency Desk, financing its logistics and personnel in full through a €1 million contribution
  • Since 2008, Inditex has set aside over €21.5 million in support for MSF under the scope of their Framework Collaboration Agreement, which has directly benefitted more than 2.2 million people
  • Inditex is also reiterating its long-standing support for MSF’s Emergency Desk, financing its logistics and personnel in full through a €1 million contribution
  • Since 2008, Inditex has set aside over €21.5 million in support for MSF under the scope of their Framework Collaboration Agreement, which has directly benefitted more than 2.2 million people

Inditex has renewed its commitment to the medical and humanitarian relief work carried out by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) with Syrian refugees in the Turkish province of Kilis. It has also reiterated its long-standing support for the Emergency Desk operated from MSF’s headquarters in Spain.

Thanks to this agreement, and a total contribution of €2.3 million, Inditex’s support will also extend to the Al Salamah Hospital in the Azzaz district of the Syrian province of Aleppo. In addition, the agreement covers care for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and a programme for combatting acute malnutrition in children in India.

The agreement was signed by the chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, and the managing director of MSF Spain, Joan Tubau, at Inditex’s headquarters in Arteixo (La Coruña), at a ceremony also attended by the president of the medical-humanitarian organisation in Spain, David Noguera.

Projects in Turkey and Syria

Since it was set up in 2013, the Syrian refugee project in Kilis, Turkey, has become one of the leading initiatives in providing care to over 130,000 people who fled the war in their home country and are currently living in this province. In 2017, the MSF teams on the ground centred their efforts on providing mental health and psychosocial support to the refugee population affected by the scarcity of resources in the region.

Inditex has provided financial support to this project from the outset, along with aid for other initiatives designed to ease the consequences of the war in Syria. Under the new annual agreement, the Kilis refugee care programme will be given €500,000.

In addition, Inditex will provide €400,000 of financing to the Al Salamah Hospital in the Azzaz district in the province of Aleppo in northern Syria. The goal is to provide primary and secondary medical care – in the form of both emergency and regular outpatient care – to those suffering from chronic and severe illness among the 400,000 people living in the district.

MSF’s Al Salamah project has lent support to three hospitals and five health centres in Aleppo since 2012. For the last five years, the organisation’s efforts have focused on ensuring medical and surgical care; primary, paediatric and reproductive care; emergency relief; and assistance with food scarcity.

Support for the Emergency Desk

With the new annual agreement, Inditex has also renewed its financial support for the medical-humanitarian organisation’s Emergency Desk, earmarking €1 million this year. Part of this sum will be set aside to finance two of the Desk’s regional missions, specifically those in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

MSF’s Emergency Desk is responsible for monitoring and managing the emergency interventions carried out and overseen by the mission’s emergency response teams on the ground. This readiness capability has a team of experts both in the head office in Spain, largely funded by Inditex, and in different countries around the world, and specialises in humanitarian crises.

Support for this unit is therefore vital to enable emergency intervention by MSF around the world, so that it can carry out an essential component of its mission: saving lives.

Care for Rohingya refugees

The exodus of the Rohingya from Myanmar has emerged as a new challenge for the international community. Over 582,000 people have fled to Bangladesh since violence in the region intensified last August.

Given the current scale of this humanitarian crisis, Inditex’s €300,000 contribution will help fund two key activities that MSF has been working on to help the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh: the provision of medical care to adults, children and pregnant women; and access to drinking water and sanitation in Jamtoli, Hakimpara, Unchiparang and Putibunia. According to MSF’s calculations, the assistance provided to these refugee camps could reach around 120,000 people.

Combatting severe malnutrition in children in India

Over the last ten years, MSF has looked after over 17,000 children in India, in line with the international guidelines for community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM). MSF has recently set up a project to combat malnutrition in the West Singhbhum district of the state of Jharkhand.

The programme will run for three years – until the end of 2019 – and is intended for children aged six months to five years. The ultimate goal is to bring down the mortality rate and according to MSF’s calculations, this initiative will directly benefit 411 patients.

The project will also encompass the provision of training for local nurses and education about healthy habits to members of the local community. Inditex is providing a total of €100,000 to fund this initiative.

Inditex’s aid strategy for refugees and forced migrants

One of the cornerstones of Inditex’s community investment strategy is the provision of care to refugees and migrants forced to start a new life away from home.

To tackle this situation from a range of perspectives, in addition to its collaboration with MSF, Inditex is working on a series of initiatives with other non-profit entities, particularly in four different areas:

  • Clothing donations: throughout 2017, Inditex has donated more than half a million garments to these causes through entities such as the Red Cross, Caritas, ACCEM, CEAR and World Vision.
  • The On the Colombian Borders Programme, with Entreculturas and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS): this initiative is aimed at providing opportunities and support for the people displaced by the armed conflict in Colombia in countries such as Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.
  • The EPGO Programme: the goal of this programme is to assist people in need of international protection. These include forced migrants in countries such as Mexico, and refugees who have had to abandon their home countries, including South Africa and Lebanon.
  • The Chair for Refugees and Forced Migrants with Comillas Pontifical University: the aim is to foster academic research into migration issues as well as a collaboration between the university and non-profit organisations.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Inditex

MSF is an international medical humanitarian organisation with a presence in over 70 countries and roughly 500 live projects underway. Its overriding mission is to assist populations in distress, victims of natural or man-made disasters and victims of armed conflict all around the world.

These annual collaboration agreements are part of the Framework Agreement signed by the two entities in 2008. This Framework Agreement has materialised in contributions of €21.5 million by Inditex to the work carried out by MSF in 35 countries, directly benefitting more than 2.2 million people.

Inditex’s partnership with MSF is part of the Group’s broader social investing strategy which encompasses a series of community initiatives carried out with a number of non-profit entities with expertise in the various projects’ respective spheres of geographic influence. Specifically, in 2016, Inditex invested €40 million in social initiatives, directly benefitting over 1.1 million people.

Detailed information about each project can be found here.

Contact:

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex and IndustriALL Global Union celebrate the tenth anniversary of their Global Framework Agreement

  • Pablo Isla and Valter Sanches went over the key milestones and future challenges of this pioneering initiative in the global garment industry marking their joint effort to enhance working conditions in the garment industry
  • The Chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, underscored the fact that looking forward, the Global Framework Agreement will continue to be “one of the most effective tools for enforcing and encouraging labour rights in the garment industry’s global supply, underpinned by freedom of association and collective bargaining”.
  • Valter Sanches, the general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries, said “the Global Framework Agreement promotes stability in a time of uncertainty. Protecting some 1.5 million garment workers in the Inditex supply chain, it empowers our unions to defend fundamental rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions”.

 

Arteixo, SPAIN, 2017-Oct-05 — /EPR Retail News/ — Today (04 OCTOBER 2017), in a joint event, Inditex and IndustriALL Global Union celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Global Framework Agreement, designed to protect and promote labour conditions throughout Inditex’s supply chain. During an event to mark the anniversary at the Madrid head office of the Economic and Social Council, the Chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, and the general secretary of IndustriALL, Valter Sánches, used the occasion to review the key progress made under the joint initiative.

During his presentation, Inditex’s Chairman and CEO stressed that the progress  delivered during the past decade bodes for a “future for the Global Framework Agreement as one of the best tools for continuing to enforce and encourage decent labour conditions in the garment sector’s supply chain around the world”. He also highlighted universal freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as key foundations of this policy.

Both acknowledged the advances promoted to set more ambitious objectives to promote decent work, as set out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which Inditex is a signatory to.

Pablo Isla acknowledged the work of the three general secretaries who have led IndustriALL since the agreement was signed, as well as praising the representatives of Spain’s leading unions, CCOO and UGT, who have helped develop the agreement throughout this time. “Without their commitment to the workers they represent, their knowledge of the garment industry and their proactive and critical spirit, the Global Framework Agreement would not have yielded the results we are applauding here today”, said Isla.

Valter Sánches commended Inditex for taking a lead in promoting worker and trade union rights: “Inditex recognizes its role as one of the world’s biggest retailers and was the first apparel brand to see the value of good industrial relations, not just in their own factories but throughout their entire supply chain. The Global Framework Agreement makes factory suppliers accountable, enabling labour conflicts to be resolved successfully and greater participation of trade unions in production countries.”

TRACEABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY

The collaboration between Inditex and IndustriALL dates back to 2002. However, it wasn’t until 2007, when the Global Framework Agreement was signed, that both parties began to roll out initiatives designed to empower workers and protect their labour rights throughout the Group’s entire supply chain – for instancethe sharing of Inditex’s full supplier list.

The 1,800 suppliers and 7,000 factories in the Inditex supply chain not only apply its Code of Conduct for Manufacturers and Suppliers to all their production but alsoparticipate in the joint initiatives carried out under the scope of the Global Framework Agreement, despite not supplying exclusively to Inditex. It is calculated that close to 1.5 million workers have seen their labour conditions protected and strengthened as a result.

The Framework Agreement achieved a new milestone in 2012 with the appointment of a General Coordinator and the signature of a Protocol committing to local union access to the supply chain, enhancing supply chain transparency and empowering local workers to pursue their own collective bargaining. This initiative was reinforced further in 2014 when the Global Framework Agreement was renewed.

The expansion of the Global Framework Agreement in 2016 marked another step forward in this joint effort by bringing local union experts into the 12 clusters of suppliers into which Inditex has organized the majority of its suppliers around the world. This protocol has created forums for effective collaboration and exchange in the quest to protect workers’ rights and ensure ongoing momentum in the clusters.

Over the last 10 years, the Framework Agreement has facilitated and strengthened a shared approach to the situation in each sourcing market by promoting the right to union access in the workplace. Pilot programmes have been carried out in over 80 factories in 12 countries tackling a wide variety of aspects, including the right to organize, decent working conditions and a healthy workplace as well as addressing women’s empowerment issues. These pilot programmes have yielded results which can be applied across the entire supply chain.

Contact:

Tel: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

Posted on by

Inditex opens Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home in Minsk, Belarus

Inditex opens Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home in Minsk, Belarus

 

  • Pablo Isla met the new teams of Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home in Minsk

Arteixo, Spain, 2017-Aug-16 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex has opened its first stores in Belarus, reaching 94 markets with commercial presence. Inditex CEO, Pablo Isla, has visited the new stores and met the new Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home teams at the Dana Mall in Minsk, one of the most relevant shopping centres of the Belarusian capital.

Zara arrives to Minsk with a two-story store featuring more than 4,000 square metres of retail space bearing the latest store concept, based on four principles: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability.  The brand offers to its Belarussian customers the latest trends for women, men and kids, as part of its Fall–Winter collection.

Pull&Bear and Bershka also opened today their new stores with more than 1,000 square metres of commercial space respectively. Pull&Bear has unveiled in Belarus its latest image, with an interior design that reminds the Californian city of Palm Springs. In turn, Bershka includes in Minsk its new store concept entitled Stage, focusing on the world of music.

Stradivarius offers Belarussian customers its new women’s collection whilst, Oysho brings to Minsk its latest designs in terms of lingerie and sports clothing, with Zara Home launching the latest trends in decoration and home furnishing to this market.

Massimo Dutti is present with its latest collections for menswear, women and children, contained in a store measuring 750 square metres.

These new stores incorporate all of the elements of sustainability found in eco-efficient Inditex stores, which consume 30% less energy and half as much water compared with a conventional store. The Group’s aim is to ensure that all of its stores are eco-efficient by 2020. Currently, 71% of Inditex stores already respond to this commitment with the environment

Contact:

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex recorded net sales growth of 14% in the 1Q of 2017 to €5.6 billion

Inditex recorded net sales growth of 14% in the 1Q of 2017 to €5.6 billion

=

  • The Group generated over 10,668 new jobs over the year, 2,242 of which were in Spain.
  • In April, the company distributed €42 million among 84,000 employees as phase two of its extraordinary employee profit-sharing plan.
  • In total, between commission, incentives and bonuses, the Group has distributed €535 million to its staff over the past year.
  • The reporting period was marked by strong business performance.
  • Sales growth in constant currency was 12.5%.
  • Net profit rose by 18% to €654 million.
  • Zara’s online platform went live in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam during the first quarter.

Arteixo, Spain, 2017-Jul-17 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex recorded net sales growth of 14% in the first quarter of 2017 (1 February – 30 April) to €5.6 billion, underpinned by a solid business performance. Sales growth in constant-currency terms was 12.5%. Net profit amounted to €654 million, up 18% from the first quarter of 2016.

Job creation

The Group has generated some 10,668 new jobs over the past twelve months, 2,242 of which were in Spain. In April, the company distributed €42 million to around 84,000 employees with at least two years’ service in its stores, manufacturing facilities, logistics platforms, brands and subsidiaries as phase two of its extraordinary employee profit-sharing plan.

The plan is equivalent to a payout of 10% of the annual growth in net profit, which equated to €28 million in 2016. The Group subsequently increased this by a further €14 million.

During the 2015/2016 extraordinary profit-sharing plan, the Group has now distributed €79.4 million to its staff. In addition, the Group has announced a new profit-sharing plan with similar characteristics for 2017/2018.

This €42 million payment comes in addition to the €493 million paid out to the entire workforce in the form of performance-based bonuses and commission in 2016. These combines with the fixed wages, that totalled €3,10 billion in 2016.

Key financial indicators

(€ M) 1Q17 1Q16 YOY CHG
Net sales 5,569 4,879 14%
Gross profit
Gross margin		 3,249
58.2%		 2,834
58.1%		 14%
EBITDA 1,113 955 17%
EBIT 834 705 18%
Net profit 654 554 18%

Meanwhile, the company continued to invest in growth through the constant modernisation and renewal of its stores and facilities. This investment continues to be framed by social responsibility and environmental criteria. The opening of the new Stradivarius offices in the Vallés area of Cerdanyola (Barcelona) during the quarter stands out as a key moment during the quarter. The brand’s design and central services staff have been moved to the new facility.

Sustainability is the bedrock of this 32,000 square metre facility: the façade features automated features to enhance energy efficiency. Indigenous plants requiring little water have been planted in certain areas and are watered using a system that reuses rainwater. These efficiency measures will reduce energy use by 45% and water use by 30%. In addition, the use of locally sourced recyclable materials and the building’s heating system should qualify the building for LEED Gold certification.

The Green Building Council has awarded its LEED Gold certification to Oysho’s headquarters in Tordera during the first quarter.

In addition, in the months of May and June, the company announced plans to build two new logistics hubs over the coming months, one in the Dutch town of Lelystad and the other in A Laracha in Galicia, Spain. These hubs will complement and support the Group’s existing central logistics platforms in Spain. Investment in these new facilities will exceed €150 million.

Growth across all regions

All of the Group’s brands increased their international presence, expanding their integrated physical and online store platforms. Four new e-commerce markets were added during the quarter, with Zara launching online operations in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. In parallel, the Group continued to expand and refine its presence in its 93 operating markets, ending the period with 7,385 stores. Zara is due to launch online in India during the second half of the year.

The first quarter was marked by a notable number of flagship store openings. In Madrid, Zara opened a four-storey, 6,000 square metre store at Castellana 79, in the heart of the iconic Azca business and retail district. The new store stands apart for its eco-efficiency credentials, as it has been fitted with the latest innovations which will deliver savings in water and energy consumption of 45% and up 20%, respectively. As a result, it holds LEED Gold certification.

Massimo Dutti opened the doors of a two-storey establishment of over 1,000 metres in central Moscow (Russia) which houses the brand’s men’s, women’s and limited-edition collections. This new flagship store, located on Kuznetsky Most street, combines innovative architectural features with the historic building’s original features.

Zara Home, meanwhile, also opened important new stores, including 600 square metre flagship stores on the busy Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich (Switzerland) and on Kärntner Strasse in Vienna (Austria), the latter located in a building opposite the opera house which has been refurbished to preserve its original aesthetics and structure. In May, this brand also inaugurated a flagship store on Shanghai’s West Nanjing Road (China).

Uterqüe opened a particularly special store on Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia (Spain), one of the world’s most important shopping streets. The store’s aesthetic is based in Uterqüe’s new store image, which is understated yet sophisticated. It features a vertical garden in the middle of the store which provides freshness and vibrancy.

In May, Zara opened the doors of its new flagship store in the Ismail Building in Mumbay (India). In inaugurating this new store, which boasts a total floor area of around 4,800 square metres, the company’s in-house architectural team conducted extensive research work in order to restore one of the city’s oldest and most emblematic buildings, while introducing all of the eco-efficiency measures being rolled out by the Group in order to deliver energy and water consumption savings of 30% and 50%, respectively, making it a candidate for LEED certification in the process.

Pull&Bear also opened in May its first Parisian flagship store on Rue de Rivoli, just a few metres away from the Louvre Museum, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the George Pompidou Centre. The establishment, which spans 550 square metres, stands out for its imposing neoclassic façade which was decorated with illustrations specially designed for the occasion by American artist Andy Remeter for the first few days after the store’s inauguration.

Oysho, the Inditex Group’s underwear and gymwear brand, opened over a dozen new stores during the quarter and in May it opened its new two-storey, 720 square metre flagship store on Vía Roma, one of the most emblematic streets in Turin’s historic district.

In parallel, the Group continued to expand and/or refurbish some of its most iconic stores. In Paris (France), Zara reopened its emblematic store in the Opera district; the establishment now spans 4,000 square metres in total and presents impressive façades looking on to Boulevard des Capucines and Rue Halevy, opposite the Garnier Opera House.

Paris was also home to the reopening of the Bershka flagship store on Rue de Rivoli, where it has unveiled its new Stage store image and concept in a bigger space in the heart of the French capital.

Stradivarius, meanwhile, reopened the doors of its renovated 900 square metre flagship store on Portal del Angel in Barcelona (Spain). During the reopening, Inditex’s youth brand also commemorated the milestone of reaching 1,000 stores worldwide.

Commercial initiatives

All of the brands launched novel commercial initiatives in early 2017. Massimo Dutti launched #DressedinDutti, a new Instagram initiative which enables shoppers to purchase from the content shared on this social network. For the launch of the new hashtag and web section, the brand used Italian influencer Diletta Bonaiuti as ambassador. #DressedinDutti is available in 13 countries, including Spain, the US, Russia, the UK, Mexico and Italy, among others.

Oysho, meanwhile, extended its support for sporting events. In Lisbon, the brand was responsible for the design and production of the official T-shirt for the local women’s race, Corrida da Mulher, and in Rome it was the Local Major Partner for the Race for the Cure charity run for the third year running. In a new development, this year Oysho organised the official practice runs for both events, which started from the Oysho Galleria Colonna and the Oysho Rua Garret stores in the case of the Rome and Lisbon races, respectively.

Zara also embarked on a range of initiatives, including the Exotic Allure, Blooming and Mustard’s Garden collections and the limited-edition online TRF collection called Oil On Denim.

The world of motorbike racing inspired Pull&Bear once again this quarter with the brand not only announcing its official sponsorship of Marc Márquez and the Honda HRC motor-racing team for 2017 and 2018, but also launching the first collection designed by the rider himself along with the brand’s creative teams. The Marc Márquez x Pull&Bear collection is on sale in a selection of stores around the world and on the brand’s website www.pullandbear.com

Elsewhere, in order to mark the 56th edition of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile furniture trade fair in Milan, Zara Home presented La Grande Illusione, a pop-up installation in the Piazza San Babila store designed in collaboration with the British set designer and art director Simon Costin.

For this project, the Zara Home team and Simon Costin worked jointly to develop a concept that would bring the brand closer to the world of art and design by means of a spectacular montage in which the brand’s 2017 spring-summer collections take centre stage.

This collaboration was rounded out with the input of another talented British artist: photographer Tim Walker participated in the initiative with a series of six photographs in which the dresses imagined by Simon Costin come to life through his lens.

Stradivarius also had an active start to the year. One of the most noteworthy initiatives was the celebration in May of the third edition of its Summer Expedition, an annual trip which brings a group of international influencers to top destinations, in collaboration with Vueling. Specifically, the brand brought 16 influencers to Marrakesh (Morocco), where it presented its spring/summer 2017 collections and they enjoyed three activity-filled days.

Giving back to the community

On the social and environmental responsibility front, the company’s for&from programme attained a new milestone when it opened a new Tempe store in the Sambil Outlet shopping centre in Leganés (Madrid, Spain), which is managed by people with disabilities.

The store has a headcount of 18 people and a floor area of 500 square metres. It sells the shoes and accessories made by Tempe for all of the Group’s brands (Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe) and is managed by the Prodis Foundation, an organisation devoted to integrating people with disabilities into the workforce.

With this new addition, Inditex has opened 12 for&from stores, which employ 144 people, in collaboration with specialist charitable organisations.

2Q17 trading update

Sales in constant currency terms increased by x% from 1 February to 3 June 2017.

Inditex has scheduled its Annual General Meeting for 18 July. The Board of Directors will ask the company’s shareholders to approve the payment of an overall dividend from 2016 profits of €0.68 per share, €0.34 of which was already paid out on 2 May 2017; the balance would be paid on 2 November 2017.

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex recorded net sales growth of 14% in the first quarter of 2017 to €5.6 billion

  • The Group generated over 10,668 new jobs over the year, 2,242 of which were in Spain.
  • In April, the company distributed €42 million among 84,000 employees as phase two of its extraordinary employee profit-sharing plan.
  • In total, between commission, incentives and bonuses, the Group has distributed €535 million to its staff over the past year.
  • The reporting period was marked by strong business performance.
  • Sales growth in constant currency was 12.5%.
  • Net profit rose by 18% to €654 million.
  • Zara’s online platform went live in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam during the first quarter.
  • Sales in constant currency terms increased by 12% from 1 February to 3 June 2017.

Arteixo, Spain, 2017-Jun-16 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex recorded net sales growth of 14% in the first quarter of 2017 (1 February – 30 April) to €5.6 billion, underpinned by a solid business performance. Sales growth in constant-currency terms was 12.5%. Net profit amounted to €654 million, up 18% from the first quarter of 2016.

Job creation

The Group has generated some 10,668 new jobs over the past twelve months, 2,242 of which were in Spain. In April, the company distributed €42 million to around 84,000 employees with at least two years’ service in its stores, manufacturing facilities, logistics platforms, brands and subsidiaries as phase two of its extraordinary employee profit-sharing plan.

The plan is equivalent to a payout of 10% of the annual growth in net profit, which equated to €28 million in 2016. The Group subsequently increased this by a further €14 million.

During the 2015/2016 extraordinary profit-sharing plan, the Group has now distributed €79.4 million to its staff. In addition, the Group has announced a new profit-sharing plan with similar characteristics for 2017/2018.

This €42 million payment comes in addition to the €493 million paid out to the entire workforce in the form of performance-based bonuses and commission in 2016. These combines with the fixed wages, that totalled €3,10 billion in 2016.

Sustainability is the bedrock of this 32,000 square metre facility: the façade features automated features to enhance energy efficiency. Indigenous plants requiring little water have been planted in certain areas and are watered using a system that reuses rainwater. These efficiency measures will reduce energy use by 45% and water use by 30%. In addition, the use of locallysourced recyclable materials and the building’s heating system should qualify the building for LEED Gold certification.Meanwhile, the company continued to invest in growth through the constant modernisation and renewal of its stores and facilities. This investment continues to be framed by social responsibility and environmental criteria. The opening of the new Stradivarius offices in the Vallés area of Cerdanyola (Barcelona) during the quarter stands out as a key moment during the quarter. The brand’s design and central services staff have been moved to the new facility.

The Green Building Council has awarded its LEED Gold certification to Oysho’s headquarters in Tordera during the first quarter.

In addition, in the months of May and June, the company announced plans to build two new logistics hubs over the coming months, one in the Dutch town of Lelystad and the other in A Laracha in Galicia, Spain. These hubs will complement and support the Group’s existing central logistics platforms in Spain. Investment in these new facilities will exceed €150 million.

Growth across all regions

All of the Group’s brands increased their international presence, expanding their integrated physical and online store platforms. Four new e-commerce markets were added during the quarter, with Zara launching online operations in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. In parallel, the Group continued to expand and refine its presence in its 93 operating markets, ending the period with 7,385 stores. Zara is due to launch online in India during the second half of the year.

The first quarter was marked by a notable number of flagship store openings. In Madrid, Zara opened a four-storey, 6,000 square metre store at Castellana 79, in the heart of the iconic Azca business and retail district. The new store stands apart for its eco-efficiency credentials, as it has been fitted with the latest innovations which will deliver savings in water and energy consumption of 45% and up 20%, respectively. As a result, it holds LEED Gold certification.

Massimo Dutti opened the doors of a two-storey establishment of over 1,000 metres in central Moscow (Russia) which houses the brand’s men’s, women’s and limited-edition collections. This new flagship store, located on Kuznetsky Most street, combines innovative architectural features with the historic building’s original features.

Zara Home, meanwhile, also opened important new stores, including 600 square metre flagship stores on the busy Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich (Switzerland) and on Kärntner Strasse in Vienna (Austria), the latter located in a building opposite the opera house which has been refurbished to preserve its original aesthetics and structure. In May, this brand also inaugurated a flagship store on Shanghai’s West Nanjing Road (China).

Uterqüe opened a particularly special store on Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia (Spain), one of the world’s most important shopping streets. The store’s aesthetic is based in Uterqüe’s new store image, which is understated yet sophisticated. It features a vertical garden in the middle of the store which provides freshness and vibrancy.

In May, Zara opened the doors of its new flagship store in the Ismail Building in Mumbay (India). In inaugurating this new store, which boasts a total floor area of around 4,800 square metres, the company’s in-house architectural team conducted extensive research work in order to restore one of the city’s oldest and most emblematic buildings, while introducing all of the eco-efficiency measures being rolled out by the Group in order to deliver energy and water consumption savings of 30% and 50%, respectively, making it a candidate for LEED certification in the process.

Pull&Bear also opened in May its first Parisian flagship store on Rue de Rivoli, just a few metres away from the Louvre Museum, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the George Pompidou Centre. The establishment, which spans 550 square metres, stands out for its imposing neoclassic façade which was decorated with illustrations specially designed for the occasion by American artist Andy Remeter for the first few days after the store’s inauguration.

Oysho, the Inditex Group’s underwear and gymwear brand, opened over a dozen new stores during the quarter and in May it opened its new two-storey, 720 square metre flagship store on Vía Roma, one of the most emblematic streets in Turin’s historic district.

In parallel, the Group continued to expand and/or refurbish some of its most iconic stores. In Paris (France), Zara reopened its emblematic store in the Opera district; the establishment now spans 4,000 square metres in total and presents impressive façades looking on to Boulevard des Capucines and Rue Halevy, opposite the Garnier Opera House.

Paris was also home to the reopening of the Bershka flagship store on Rue de Rivoli, where it has unveiled its new Stage store image and concept in a bigger space in the heart of the French capital.

Stradivarius, meanwhile, reopened the doors of its renovated 900 square metre flagship store on Portal del Angel in Barcelona (Spain). During the reopening, Inditex’s youth brand also commemorated the milestone of reaching 1,000 stores worldwide.

Commercial initiatives

All of the brands launched novel commercial initiatives in early 2017. Massimo Dutti launched #DressedinDutti, a new Instagram initiative which enables shoppers to purchase from the content shared on this social network. For the launch of the new hashtag and web section, the brand used Italian influencer Diletta Bonaiuti as ambassador. #DressedinDutti is available in 13 countries, including Spain, the US, Russia, the UK, Mexico and Italy, among others.

Oysho, meanwhile, extended its support for sporting events. In Lisbon, the brand was responsible for the design and production of the official T-shirt for the local women’s race, Corrida da Mulher, and in Rome it was the Local Major Partner for the Race for the Cure charity run for the third year running. In a new development, this year Oysho organised the official practice runs for both events, which started from the Oysho Galleria Colonna and the Oysho Rua Garret stores in the case of the Rome and Lisbon races, respectively.

Zara also embarked on a range of initiatives, including the Exotic Allure, Blooming and Mustard’s Garden collections and the limited-edition online TRF collection called Oil On Denim.

The world of motorbike racing inspired Pull&Bear once again this quarter with the brand not only announcing its official sponsorship of Marc Márquez and the Honda HRC motor-racing team for 2017 and 2018, but also launching the first collection designed by the rider himself along with the brand’s creative teams. The Marc Márquez x Pull&Bear collection is on sale in a selection of stores around the world and on the brand’s website www.pullandbear.com.

Elsewhere, in order to mark the 56th edition of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile furniture trade fair in Milan, Zara Home presented La Grande Illusione, a pop-up installation in the Piazza San Babila store designed in collaboration with the British set designer and art director Simon Costin.

For this project, the Zara Home team and Simon Costin worked jointly to develop a concept that would bring the brand closer to the world of art and design by means of a spectacular montage in which the brand’s 2017 spring-summer collections take centre stage.

This collaboration was rounded out with the input of another talented British artist: photographer Tim Walker participated in the initiative with a series of six photographs in which the dresses imagined by Simon Costin come to life through his lens.

Stradivarius also had an active start to the year. One of the most noteworthy initiatives was the celebration in May of the third edition of its Summer Expedition, an annual trip which brings a group of international influencers to top destinations, in collaboration with Vueling. Specifically, the brand brought 16 influencers to Marrakesh (Morocco), where it presented its spring/summer 2017 collections and they enjoyed three activity-filled days

Giving back to the community

On the social and environmental responsibility front, the company’s for&from programme attained a new milestone when it opened a new Tempe store in the Sambil Outlet shopping centre in Leganés (Madrid, Spain), which is managed by people with disabilities.

The store has a headcount of 18 people and a floor area of 500 square metres. It sells the shoes and accessories made by Tempe for all of the Group’s brands (Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe) and is managed by the Prodis Foundation, an organisation devoted to integrating people with disabilities into the workforce.

With this new addition, Inditex has opened 12 for&from stores, which employ 144 people, in collaboration with specialist charitable organisations.

2Q17 trading update

Sales in constant currency terms increased by 12% from 1 February to 3 June 2017.

Inditex has scheduled its Annual General Meeting for 18 July. The Board of Directors will ask the company’s shareholders to approve the payment of an overall dividend from 2016 profits of €0.68 per share, €0.34 of which was already paid out on 2 May 2017; the balance would be paid on 2 November 2017.

Contact:

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

Posted on by

Retail decoration: Spanish firm Panespol launches new ideas LAB to meet creatives’ wild designs

Alicante, Spain, 2017-May-03 — /EPR Retail News/ — The Spanish design surfaces company Panespol® has launched a new bespoke service for architects and designers who need made-to-measure 3D objects for retail decoration.

Claiming to provide any shapes, materials, and reasonable sizes, as well as special effects, tricks, and delivery to sharp deadlines, the Panespol® LAB service has been made possible by smart technology updates and the firm’s own patents in polymer materials, although it will work in all materials, even natural plants from forests.

“We know that designers and architects are tired of recycling ideas because no one has an out-of-the-box production capacity for big orders on out-of-the-ordinary projects,” says Panespol®.

“Now they can be as specific and demanding as they like, and can dream big and have someone make it all happen, and do all the work from conception to final delivery.”

The Alicante-based firm, founded in 2001, has become known worldwide for the quality of its wall coverings in light, hard-wearing, fireproof, and ecological imitations that can be mounted by one person without building skills. It supplies chains such as Inditex (Bershka, Stradivarius), Burger King, Pizza Hut, Urban Jungle, and even Ikea.

This new LAB service was showcased to much acclaim at the recent retail fair Euroshop, held in Düsseldorf from March 5 to 9, where Panespol® mounted an interactive stand featuring some of the ‘off-the-wall’ shapes it can produce on demand.

Contact:

Press: Peter Wix
innovation@panespol.com

Panespol: Sonia Bernabeu (International)
sonia@panespol.com

Posted on by

Inditex underscores its commitment to Water.org

Inditex underscores its commitment to Water.org

 

Arteixo, Spain, 2017-Jan-23 — /EPR Retail News/ — Against the backdrop of the annual World Economic Forum taking place this week in Davos (Switzerland), the Chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, met today (19/01/2017) with Matt Damon and Gary White, Co-founders of Water.org, an international organisation whose mission is to bring safe water and sanitation to people in need.

During the meeting, Mr Isla underscored Inditex’s commitment to Water.org made in late 2015, providing an initial Eur 3.7 million to support projects in Bangladesh and Cambodia with the goal of directly improving the health of more than 160,000 people. “Inditex and Water.org are absolutely complementary”, explained Pablo Isla, “Water.org is a hugely effective vehicle to deliver change around the critical issue of water management, particularly in vulnerable regions. This is an issue to which we ascribe huge importance and the work carried out by Water.org is admirable”.

Matt Damon and Gary White thanked Inditex for its support, reviewing some of the progress and success during the first year working together. During this time important work has been done to support the successful implementation of WaterCredit, which brings small affordable and easily repayable loans to those who need access to financing and expert resources to make household water and sanitation solutions a reality.

Progress in Bangladesh includes identifying and partnering with several micro-finance institutions and training their loan officers to market and support these life-changing loans. In Cambodia, more than 6,000 people have gained critical access to safe water and/or improved sanitation. “We are grateful to Inditex for their support. We share their belief in smart solutions, empowering consumers and the critical role of market based approaches in achieving social change,” said Gary White, Co-founder and CEO of Water.org.

The work being done through Water.org’s New Ventures Fund, which is a principal source of innovation funding, was also discussed. Inditex has earmarked one-quarter of its contribution to Water.or; to researching new resources and approaches designed to efficiently combat the world’s water crisis.

This private meeting took place after a Davos round-table event addressing the global water crisis spearheaded by Water.org in which Pablo Isla, participated. The World Economic Forum has deemed water management one of the world’s biggest problems, one which already affects more than 660 million people worldwide. In addition to Pablo Isla, the event was attended by chief executives from some 20 top-tier international companies and global organisations who came together with the aim of finding sustainable solutions for communities in need of social and economic development.

Water.org

For more than 20 years, Water.org has been at the forefront of developing and delivering solutions to the global water crisis. Founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, Water.org pioneers innovative, community-driven and market-based initiatives to ensure all people have access to safe water and sanitation — giving women hope, children health and communities a future. To date, Water.org has positively transformed the lives of more than 5 million people around the world, ensuring a better life for generations ahead. Learn more at www.water.org and www.facebook.com/water.

To know more about Inditex’ policy on water resources worldwide please visit:

http://www.inditex.com/en/sustainability/environment/water

Contact:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex and Entreculturas NGO renewed partnership that will execute 22 new social projects

Inditex and Entreculturas NGO renewed partnership that will execute 22 new social projects
Inditex and Entreculturas NGO renewed partnership that will execute 22 new social projects

 

  • Nine countries in Latin America, South Africa and the Lebanon will benefit from 22 new educational, employment and humanitarian aid programmesç
  • One million people have received direct aid since the two institutions began to collaborate back in 2001

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Dec-01 — /EPR Retail News/ — Today (29/11/2016), the chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, and the managing director of Entreculturas NGO, Daniel Villanueva, renewed the collaboration agreement to which the two entities are party for the next three years for the continued funding of education, employment and humanitarian aid programmes in Latin America, South Africa and the Lebanon that will directly benefit 165,500 people.

Entitled Educating People, Generating Opportunities (EPGO), the new three-year agreement, which contemplates the execution of 22 social projects between 2017 and 2019, will facilitate the extension of the projects initiated under the scope of the last three-year agreement (2014-16) that have brought assistance and relief to over 160,000 people (for more information about the projects, go to www.unmillondeoportunidades.org).

Education

In the educational arena, one of Entreculturas’ main lines of intervention, the new EPGO programme will prioritise the provision of access to learning for children currently not in the school system and assistance to children and youths susceptible to dropping out of the system in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The 18,200 people who will benefit from this programme include youths with disabilities who face social obstacles impeding their integration into school life and the job world and youths living in rural areas and violent urban areas who face difficulties in attending their learning centres with the required assiduity and/or in raising their academic performance. This programme also includes specific plans for the teachers who work with these vulnerable youths.

Employment

The employment projects contemplated under the agreement are centred on the provision of vocational and skills training to youths living in poverty and excluded from the job market with a view to facilitating self-employment or helping them find work. Notably, this programme includes concrete initiatives targeted at young people living in the rural areas of Ecuador most affected by the earthquake of 2016, skills training plans for women and courses on new farming techniques for farmers living in economically-depressed regions. These projects will be carried out in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela and will touch the lives of 32,500 people.

Humanitarian aid

The work planned on the humanitarian aid front will concentrate on the provision of assistance to forced migrants and refugees in need of international protection in Mexico, South Africa and the Lebanon and will reach over 114,800 people.

Specifically in Mexico, the programme will provide in-person assistance to people attempting to reach the United States via Mexico, offering them legal counsel, psychological support and covering their basic needs across a network of shelters.

In South Africa, the humanitarian effort will focus on the integration into society and the job market of refugees and displaced people fleeing from armed conflict in other parts of Africa and take the form of educational programmes, skills training, healthcare and essential services.

The Lebanese project, meanwhile, is designed to provide more than 2,400 displaced Syrian children living in refugee camps with access to quality education, psychosocial support and emergency relief such as food and hygiene materials.

15-year collaboration

Inditex and Entreculturas embarked on this collaboration in 2001. During these last 15 years, Inditex has earmarked over €39 million of social investment to education and community development projects carried out by this NGO in Latin America and Africa that have helped almost one million people. Under this new agreement, Inditex will contribute a further €9.8 million of funding over the next three years.

Entreculturas

Entreculturas is a development-focused NGO that champions access to education as the means to social change and cross-cultural dialogue. It targets its educational initiatives at the most vulnerable populations of 41 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia and runs a host of training, volunteering and social awareness programmes as well as campaigns designed to encourage critical thinking.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex allocates €9.7 million to aid Syrian refugees in Turkey through renewed partnerships with Médecins Sans Frontières and Caritas

Inditex allocates €9.7 million to aid Syrian refugees in Turkey through renewed partnerships with Médecins Sans Frontières and Caritas
Inditex allocates €9.7 million to aid Syrian refugees in Turkey through renewed partnerships with Médecins Sans Frontières and Caritas

 

Inditex is earmarking €1 million to MSF’s medical and humanitarian work with Syrian refugees in the Turkish province of Kilis along the border with Syria which it has been supporting consistently since 2013 

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Nov-08 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex has renewed its collaboration agreements with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Caritas, allocating €9.7 million to several projects run by these non-governmental organisations. Inditex’s Chairman and CEO, Pablo Isla, signed the respective collaboration agreements at the company’s headquarters in Arteixo (La Coruña) in the presence of the president of MSF in Spain, David Noguera, and the president of Caritas Spain, Rafael del Río.

The MSF projects, to which the Group will contribute €2.3 million this year, are centred on the provision of humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees in Kilis (Turkey) and support for the mission’s emergency response teams in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. Caritas, meanwhile, will receive a €7.4 million contribution from Inditex between 2016 and 2018 for workplace integration programmes targeted at people at risk of social exclusion in Spain and community development programmes in Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Project in Kilis (Turkey) with MSF

Inditex will contribute a further €1 million to the medical and humanitarian assistance work of MSF to Syrian refugees in the Turkish province of Kilis.

Since it was set up in 2013, the Kilis project has been providing care to the more than 130,000 Syrian refugees fleeing their homes from war to the province’s urban and rural areas on the border between Turkey and Syria.

Over three-quarters of these refugees reside in precarious circumstances, outside of the Turkish refugee camps. Many are currently staying in Kilis, the first region of safety, and are largely undocumented. MSF is presently the only international humanitarian organisation that is providing  free healthcare to these refugees.

The €1 million in funding provided by Inditex will be used specifically to provide primary health care and psychological and pastoral support to the refugees in Kilis. This will include a programme of support-visits by MSF professionals to the displaced Syrians. In parallel, taskforces will be set up to address chronic disease, psychological requirements and health education focused on gender-based violence and providing treatment to refugees who suffered torture prior to fleeing from Syria.

Inditex has been consistently supporting this project and various other initiatives aimed at supporting the refugee crisis since its onset. In addition to its work at the border between Turkey and Syria, Inditex has provided financial support to the emergency units set up by MSF to assist Syrian refugees in their exodus towards Europe, as well as making in-kind donations via various humanitarian organisations.

Since Inditex and MSF signed a Framework Collaboration Agreement in 2008, the Group has contributed over €19.1 million to MSF to fund ongoing emergency relief work, as well as specific projects. These initiatives have benefitted more than 1.8 million people in 14 countries and in 28 emergency zones.

Support for the Emergency Desk

In addition, Inditex has pledged to renew its support to MSF’s Emergency Desk, with a further contribution of €1.3 million for this year.

MSF’s Emergency Desk is the unit responsible for monitoring and managing the mission’s emergency response teams on the ground. This emergency response unit, which is exclusively funded by Inditex, is staffed by expert professionals located in both MSF’s Spanish headquarters and in disaster zones.

Specifically, €500,000 will be allocated to the Emergency Desk at MSF’s Spanish headquarters and €400,000 each will be earmarked to the two mission emergency response teams in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. In both instances, these teams’ function is to provide expert training support and advice to the MSF units currently deployed in these African nations so that they are ready to respond in the event of an emergency.

The Caritas employment programme in Spain

Inditex will also contribute €5 million to Caritas’s employment programmes in Spain over the next three years. This will help fund workforce integration projects, self-employment initiatives, on-the-job training plans and rural community development projects.

The employment-focused collaboration between Caritas and Inditex in Spain dates back to 2011. Since then, the programme has established itself as a benchmark initiative in improving the job prospects and workplace integration of people at risk of social exclusion. Since 2011, Inditex has provided €6.5 million to this endeavour, which has directly benefitted more than 4,600 people. Over 3,500 of these beneficiaries have received training that has improved their job prospects and 1,450 have found their way back into the job market thanks to the integration programmes.

For the upcoming three-year period (2017 – 2019), the employment programme will receive another €5 million of funding from Inditex and is expected to support nearly 600 training initiatives for learning a new skill or enhancing existing ones, accompanied by work placements in many instances, with the aim of improving the percentage of beneficiaries who ultimately find work.

This programme also aspires to further foster the creation and consolidation of community development projects in areas such as tourism, graphic art, hospitality and organic farming sectors.

Community work in Bangladesh and Cambodia

Inditex and Caritas have also signed three-year agreements (covering 2016 – 2018) under which the company will allocate €2.4 million to the organisation’s community development programmes in Bangladesh and Cambodia.

The aim of these programmes is to improve rural community readiness for natural disasters in the case of Bangladesh and to extend the community health and development strategy already underway in the case of Cambodia. Since 2008, Inditex has contributed €4.3 million to these programmes, which have benefitted nearly 82,000 people.

In Bangladesh, the programmes, which will receive €1.5 million in new funding, aim to reinforce local community readiness for natural disasters, in a country prone to such catastrophes. Caritas has been working on disaster management for many years, evolving over time from an assistance-based approach to a prevention-based strategy which directly involves the local communities themselves. Specifically, the plan is to train the programme participants in risk management and to build flood shelters, enclosures to protect livestock, and dams and canals for combating drought.

Inditex will support initiatives aimed at improving living conditions in the least privileged communities of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city. The initiatives target working women, as well as infants and teenagers. The aim is to raise parental awareness of antenatal and infant healthcare and improve the care provided to the children of female garment sector workers, ensuring access to schooling.

The Cambodian project, to be funded with €900,000, extends Caritas’s community health and development programme in rural areas in Cambodia, which has been supported by Inditex since 2008.

The beneficiaries of these projects are vulnerable families and individuals living in extreme poverty, AIDS patients and people with disabilities. The plan is to reinforce farming cooperatives, build health and maternity centres and promote pre- and post-natal care, among other initiatives.

Social investment at Inditex

Inditex’s partnerships with MSF and Caritas are part of the Group’s broader social investment strategy which supports a broad series of community initiatives carried out with a number of non-profits with expertise in the various areas and geographies. Against this backdrop, in 2015, Inditex invested more than €35 million in social initiatives which directly benefitted almost one million people.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex to sponsor exchange program for China’s Tsinghua SEM University students in Spain

Inditex to sponsor exchange program for China's Tsinghua SEM University students in Spain
Inditex to sponsor exchange program for China’s Tsinghua SEM University students in Spain

 

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Nov-05 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex will fund grants for students of Tsinghua School of Economics and Management to conduct academic and business exchanges in Spain

The Chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, and the Dean of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (SEM), Professor Yingyi Qian, have signed a three-year collaboration agreement to donate resources for the following programmes:

  • Grants for Tsinghua’s SEM students to visit Inditex’s headquarters in Arteixo, Spain to gain practical experience in areas such as fashion retail management, logistics, environmental protection and sustainable development.
  • Training programmes to support the professional development of academic staff in scientific research and teacher training.
  • Promotion of cultural activities for students on the Tsinghua SEM campus in Beijing.

Following the signing of the agreement, Pablo Isla gave a speech to 500 Tsinghua SEM students. In his speech, Isla discussed Inditex’s business model that fully integrates stores and online. He particularly highlighted the importance of people within any business organisation, as well as the need for an entrepreneurial spirit and the capacity to work constantly to achieve targets, engaging in self-criticism and avoiding complacency.  Most importantly, “you have to feel motivated and passionate about what you do,” he said.

Commitment to ethics

Isla elaborated on his approach to business management including “the importance of teamwork and feeling part of the company, giving freedom to teams and acting with freedom, creating possible organisational structures that are as simple as possible”.  He went on to say that all of this must revolve around the permanent reference point of “a commitment to ethics, with the conviction that companies have a positive transformative power capable of adding value to society beyond a purely economic contribution,” he added.

Isla went on to note the importance of sustainability in all business decisions that must be included in the management strategy from the origin of any business venture. “This means setting sights on the long term, both from a social and environmental point of view, while keeping in mind the short and medium term performance,” he said.

In this sense, Isla outlined Inditex’s ambitious eco-efficient store programme, in which energy emissions are reduced by 20% and water consumption is halved compared with a conventional store. This project will be completed in China in 2018, two years ahead of the global target, following the proposal put forward to China’s Ministry of Environment last year.

Isla also discussed the circular economy and Inditex’s efforts to drive this forward. For example, the Group’s research collaborations into the development of new fibres from used garments to extend a garment’s overall life cycle, including Inditex’s collaboration with Lenzing to generate premium textile fibres from textile waste. He also discussed the Group’s garment collection service in stores, with plans to expand the service to reach customers’ homes (as is already the case in Madrid, Spain), highlighting the agreements reached with regional charities to sort these garments for donation or recycling to generate new fibres. Within this programme in China, Inditex is collaborating with the China Environmental Protection Foundation (CEPF).

Pablo Isla also highlighted the importance of the Chinese market to Inditex. “China is a priority for Inditex, and we are convinced of its growth potential. Chinese people love fashion, and we will continue listening to them and learning from them in order to go on meeting the demands of the market through our integrated online and store model.”

Tsinghua University, one of the most prestigious universities in China, was founded in Beijing in 1911. Since it began, it has valued the interaction between Chinese and Western cultures, the sciences and humanities, the ancient and modern. Tsinghua currently has 14 schools and 56 departments, with faculties in science, engineering, humanities, law, medicine, history, philosophy, economy, management, education and art. With a firm focus on social responsibility, Tsinghua University is one of the most active institutions in China’s cultural, business and political life.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

InTalent: Inditex and University of Coruña launch programme for recruitment and promotion of scientific researchers

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Oct-19 — /EPR Retail News/ — The chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, and the dean of the University of Coruña (UDC), Julio Abalde, signed a collaboration agreement this morning for the creation of a programme for the recruitment and promotion of scientific researchers that is international in scope.

The programme, called InTalent, will enable scientists with a proven track record abroad to carry on their research projects at the University’s facilities, thereby improving the latter’s faculty and research capabilities while boosting its students’ chances of finding work and enterprising. Inditex will contribute €1.45 million to financing the researchers and their specific projects through 2021.

At the signing ceremony, which took place in the University’s rectorate, the dean explained that UDC’s goal is to “foster the ability to retain the talent nurtured at the University itself, facilitate the return of outstanding researchers and attract prestigious scientists”.

UDC will select six scientists who will be gradually brought in in pairs via tenders to take place in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Each researcher’s programme will last for two years with a two-year extension option. At the end of each researcher’s stint, the University may take them on as faculty or research staff. The participating scientists will be selected by a committee that will use merit-based methodology to vet their research trajectories. The panel will also assess the scientific and/or social impact of the candidates’ research work.

Social Responsibility Chair since 2010

UDC and Inditex jointly created the Social Responsibility Chair in 2010. Its mission is to promote a space for insightful community thinking, academic training and applied research in the area of social responsibility and innovation by government and public entities, private companies and non-profit entities.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

Posted on by

Inditex strengthens its presence in the Southern Hemisphere with the opening of Zara’s first store in New Zealand

Inditex strengthens its presence in the Southern Hemisphere with the opening of Zara's first store in New Zealand
Inditex strengthens its presence in the Southern Hemisphere with the opening of Zara’s first store in New Zealand

 

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Oct-08 — /EPR Retail News/ — Today (06/10/2016), Zara opens the doors to its first store in New Zealand, extending Inditex’s reach in the Southern Hemisphere to nine markets with 102 stores, each receiving the dedicated Southern Hemisphere collections. This opening also marks the fifth new market for the brand this year, expanding Inditex’s commercial reach to 93 markets worldwide.

The new store in Auckland’s Sylvia Park Shopping Centre – the largest retail development in the city– has a total space of 2,552 square metres spread seamlessly over one floor. The store includes almost 1,850 square metres of commercial space and displays all the brand’s latest Spring/Summer collections (Woman, Basic, TRF, Kids and Man) all designed exclusively for the Southern Hemisphere by a dedicated team.

As in every new Zara Store, its image can be summed up in four words: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability. A sleek white surface spans the ceiling and walls so that the limits within the store are no longer defined. This helps to create the illusion of space and freedom while creating a backdrop which enhances the beauty of the fashion creations. The space invites the customer to enjoy as never before the experience of feeling, touching, observing and interacting with the merchandise.

The Sylvia Park store also incorporates all the green-building criteria stipulated by Inditex’s environmental plan – Sustainable Inditex. More than half Inditex’s stores worldwide are already eco-efficient, consuming 30% less energy and half the amount of water compared with a conventional store.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex inaugurates Zara’s online store in Turkey

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Oct-06 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex is launching its e-commerce platform in Turkey today, Wednesday, 5 October, with the inauguration of its online Zara store, accessible at www.zara.com/tr and from the chain’s app (configured for IOS and Android). The rest of the Inditex Group’s retail concepts with stores in Turkey (Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home), will also roll out their online stores in Turkey from 13 October.

Today’s launch marks a fresh milestone in the steady expansion of the integrated offline-online store model across the universe of markets in which the Group does business. Each chain offers the full range of articles on sale in their physical stores online, and at the same prices.

Thanks to the integrated offline-online store model, customers can choose between picking up their orders at the store of their choice and at-home delivery. Similarly, when changing or returning purchased items, shoppers have the choice of online management and returns at their most convenient store.

The online stores operated by Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home have been designed to make an user friendly shopping experience. The websites are configured to enable purchasing from any mobile device, using any browser and by means of any of the chain’s respective apps (in turn available in both IOS and Android versions).

Shoppers using the Group’s online stores in Turkey can also call customer service toll-free or write to a dedicated e-mail address for help with any order-related queries or incidents. Customers can similarly communicate with the chains via their respective social network profiles.

Inditex in Turkey

Inditex’s presence in Turkey dates back to 1998 when it opened its first Zara store in Ankara, at an emblematic site in the Kizilay neighbourhood within the Çankaya shopping district.

Today the Group is present in the Turkish market with seven chains (Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home) and 189 stores nationwide, in cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya.

Online presence

Zara Home was the chain selected by the Inditex Group to spearhead its online platform in 2007. In September 2010, Zara began to sell online in Spain and several European markets. Gradually, the Group has brought the rest of its chains online and added new countries to the platform’s reach.

So far in 2016, Inditex has introduced its e-commerce platform into several new markets, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and the Czech Republic. With this début in Turkey, the brand’s online presence will reach 41 markets

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

Posted on by

Inditex named the most sustainable company in the retailing industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Sep-13 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex has been named the most sustainable company in the retailing industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, having scored 80 out of a possible 100 points. The ranking, compiled by the sustainability investing specialist RobecoSam, highlights Inditex’s “leadership within the retail industry with its pioneering stance on human rights” in the supply chain.

In its report on this year’s review, RobecoSAM notes that Inditex “has implemented best-in class human rights policies, due diligence processes and comprehensive risk assessments”, going on to underscore its approach to “public disclosure”, which sets a “new high standard” for the rest of the industry.

As for its environmental performance, the publication flags the reduction in “energy and water consumption”, demonstrating a special “commitment to operational eco-efficiency”. Dow Jones also refers to the company’s ‘Closing the Loop’ programme under which it has set itself “a new goal to eliminate all waste from its own activities by 2020”.

Inditex scored a total of 80 out of a possible 100 points, putting it well head of the industry average of 36 points. More specifically, Inditex scored 97 out of a 100 along the environmental dimension and 76 points along each of the social and economic dimensions.

Inditex has been a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index since 2001, having consistently been the retailing industry leader. The ranking, which dates back to 1999, assessed 2,535 companies from all over the world this year. A total of 316 companies from 24 different sectors were selected for the 2016 edition of the ranking.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index is the gold standard for sustainability investing; each year it tracks the leading sustainability-driven stocks based on analysis of financially-relevant environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. The components of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index stand out for their leadership in their respective sectors along the economic, environmental and social dimensions. Within each of these three dimensions, the contenders are evaluated across a host of parameters, from corporate governance to supply chain management, customer service systems, eco-efficiency policies and even the transparency of their sustainability reporting efforts.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

Posted on by

SPAIN: Zara opens flagship store on calle Compostela 3, one of A Coruña’s prime shopping streets

SPAIN: Zara opens flagship store on calle Compostela 3, one of A Coruña's prime shopping streets
SPAIN: Zara opens flagship store on calle Compostela 3, one of A Coruña’s prime shopping streets

 

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Sep-01 — /EPR Retail News/ — Tomorrow, 1 September, Zara is opening a global flagship store on calle Compostela 3, one of A Coruña’s prime shopping streets. The establishment is located in a building that epitomises the city’s aesthetics – characterized by broad windows and balconies – having carried out meticulous refurbishing and conservation work.

The new store devotes 2,400 square metres to shop floor space divided over five floors that will showcase all of Zara’s collections for women, men and children. The building has another two storeys earmarked to storage and staff quarters. In all, the property comprises a floor area of 4,900 square metres over six floors with access onto calle Compostela and calle Sánchez Bregua, effectively turning the store into a new ‘enclosed’ alleyway which will bring life in both these city centre districts together.

Architectural approach

The plans, overseen by local architect Elsa Urquijo, focused on capturing the essence of the city, its light and its hallmark aesthetics, combined with the four trademarks that define Zara’s architectural philosophy: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability. The façades have been preserved impeccably, highlighting their materials and the city’s eye-catching verandas and balconies. Inside, the calle Compostela entrance stands out for its imposing atrium, some seven metres tall, which welcomes the store’s visitors, beckoning them to explore its diaphanous and light spaces. The materials predominating the entire shopping area are the stone and wood that characterize Galician architecture, albeit nuanced subtly by the light filtering in from outside at each level through the building’s impressive balconies.

The building’s structure, rather than leaning on the ground, ‘hangs’ from a steel truss placed at the top which rests on a solid structure running around the perimeter. This complex architectural solution enables the preservation in the subsoil of the architectural remains of part of the old town wall that dates to the eighteenth century, a conservation effort undertaken in close collaboration with the local cultural heritage authorities. The place where part of the wall runs under the flooring on the store’s ground can be intuited by the shift in the texture of the stone paving.

The store fittings, custom-designed for this new flagship establishment, are conceived of to add to the sensation of lightness and brightness that imbues the whole project. And so, along the walls the garments are hung from simple linear metallic structures, while the central fittings stand out for their blocks of solid stone and wood in pale tones that play with the light that filters into the shop’s interior all day long through the various balconies.

Eco-efficient store, LEED Gold certification

The new store has been built to the most stringent green building standards, these sustainability criteria applying to its actual construction as well as its commercial operations, implying water and energy savings of 30% and 40% with respect to conventional stores, respectively. The building specifications were designed with a view to achieving Gold LEED certification. This US green building certificate is widely considered the most stringent sustainable architecture standard in the world.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

###

Posted on by

Inditex deploys mobile payments across all of the Group’s Spanish stores

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Sep-01 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex is enabling mobile payments across all of the Group’s Spanish stores from 1 September. This new customer service will be available both within the online apps of Inditex’s eight retail concepts and in the form of a Group-wide app called InWallet which users can download from the platforms corresponding to their operating systems.

In the Inditex Group apps (corresponding to Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe), the tool is featured under the name of Wallet and allows end-to-end management of online and offline purchase records, facilitating elimination of hard-copy receipts.

As Inditex’s chairman and CEO Pablo Isla announced at the Annual General Meeting held last July, the service has been developed entirely by Inditex’s Technology Centre staff and is designed to enhance the customer shopping experience and significantly simplify the registration, purchase and returns processes.

Customers can start to use Wallet whithin the online apps of any of the Inditex retail brands by introducing the payment cards they wish to associate with the account and to select one as their preferred or default option. They can also download the InWallet app, common to all the Group’s formats. From that point on, each time they carry out a transaction, the application will instantly generate a QR code with which to manage payment in a safe environment.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

Posted on by

Inditex announces the launch of mobile payment in all of the its retail brands’ stores in Spain from September

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Jul-21 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex’s shareholders met today at the company’s headquarters in Arteixo for the Annual General Meeting.  During the meeting, Pablo Isla, the Group’s chairman and chief executive, reviewed Inditex’s earnings performance for 2015, noting that revenue and profits reached €20.9 billion and €2.89 billion, respectively, leading to a dividend payout of €0.60 per share. He also noted that the Group’s store count has now exceeded 7,000 across 88 markets with an online presence in 29 of those markets.

During his presentation, Mr Isla announced the launch of mobile payment in all of the Group’s stores in Spain from September. This new customer offering will be made available within the online apps of all eight of Inditex’s retail brands (Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe), as well as via a new Inditex app, InWallet, which shoppers will be able to use to pay for purchases made in any of the Group’s stores in Spain. In both instances, the service will enable online and offline receipts, facilitating the elimination of paper receipts.

The new service has been designed to enhance the shopping experience and aims to significantly simplify the purchase and returns process. Customers can activate the service directly from the online app, adding the payment cards they want to use on the account in a safe and secure way.

The app has been developed entirely in-house by Inditex, as part of the Group’s efforts to continually upgrade technology to improve the overall customer experience. In the same vein, Mr Isla also noted the status of the RFID technology rollout across all Zara stores, which is on track for completion by the end of this year and due to be rolled out in the rest of the Group’s brands starting next year.

2,000 garment recycling containers in Spain

During his presentation, Inditex’s chairman also emphasized the progress made over the past four years through the Group’s 2011-2015 Environmental Strategy Plan. Specifically, he highlighted the following milestones:

  • Traceability of the production supply chain and monitoring initiatives throughout the Group’s supply chain, from raw material procurement to the end of the garments’ useful life.
  • Significant growth in the use of more sustainable raw materials.
  • Pioneering the implementation of environmental sustainability procedures for wet processes (dyeing and washing).
  • Development of the eco-efficient store model, which has already been implemented in 3,700 Group stores.

Building on this progress, Mr Isla unveiled Inditex’s new 2016-2020 Environmental Strategy Plan, which further builds on the circular economy model in all phases of the product cycle.

One of the initiatives outlined by Mr Isla includes the development of Inditex’s collection, reuse and recycling programme for end-of-life garments. In September, Zara will implement a scheme for free at-home collection of used clothing when delivering online orders. This pilot test – which is being conducted in collaboration with the Spanish charity Cáritas and transportation firm Seur – will initially trial in Madrid with the aim of gradually introducing the scheme all over Spain.

In addition, Inditex will install between 1,500 and 2,000 garment collection containers in Spain’s main cities, also in collaboration with Cáritas. The charity will sort the clothing to further the garment’s life through its distribution channels or allow for recycling for the development of new textile raw materials. Inditex will donate €3.5 million over two years to this project, which will also encompass the modernisation of Cáritas’s garment sorting and treatment plants. In parallel, Inditex will also place new containers throughout its stores, adding to the existing network, in order that all its bricks and mortar stores in Spain will have a container by September.

Research into and development of cutting-edge recycling technologies

In addition, as part of the Group’s commitment to the circular economy model, it continues to work hard to support the development of textile recycling technology for the creation of new raw materials.

As part of this, Inditex has signed an agreement with Lenzing, the Austrian producer of the plant-based sustainable textile fibre Lyocell TENCEL, for the manufacture of premium textile raw materials from textile waste generated by Inditex.

Throughout the project, Inditex will provide Lenzing with fabric for recycling into new materials. The pilot will start with a contribution of around 500 tonnes of textile waste, with the aim of raising this to around 3,000 tonnes within a few years. This is enough fabric to enable Lenzing to produce around 48 million garments.

Inditex is also championing research into technology for the creation of new textile fibres from recycled garments together with MIT and specific Spanish universities.

Group growth
During the presentation to shareholders, Pablo Isla also emphasised the Group’s sharp growth in all geographies, the progress made within the integrated offline-online store model and the pace of job creation in 2015, a year in which Inditex created 15,800 new jobs, some 4,120 of which were in Spain. In his closing remarks, Pablo Isla referred to Inditex as a people-centred company focused on creative talent, community investment and a sustainable growth strategy.

The company’s shareholders also ratified the 2015 financial statements, the re-election of Flora Pérez Marcote as a member of the Board of Directors and the appointment of Baroness Denise Kingsmill CBE as an independent director.

Contact:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

###

Inditex announces the launch of mobile payment in all of the its retail brands' stores in Spain from September
Inditex announces the launch of mobile payment in all of the its retail brands’ stores in Spain from September

 

Source: Inditex

Posted on by

Greenpeace ranked Inditex at the top of its Detox Catwalk 2016 classification

The report, compiled by Greenpeace, places the company “ahead of the field” in responsible garment production

Arteixo, ESPAÑA, 2016-Jul-12 — /EPR Retail News/ — Greenpeace has ranked Inditex at the top of its Detox Catwalk 2016 classification, which selects and rates the garment makers it sees as deploying standard-setting practices in the use of sustainable chemical products. According to the NGO, Inditex has achieved “AVANT-GARDE” status and is ahead of the curve in the unfolding shift towards the use of clean products in its sector.

Inditex is described by Greenpeace as one of the organisations “with the safest and most environmentally-responsible production chains”, also stressing the company’s efforts to monitor its suppliers’ discharges into wastewater on an ongoing basis. The NGO describes Inditex’s work on the transparency front, having publicly disclosed its list of wet process suppliers, as “exemplary”. Against this backdrop, Greenpeace alludes to the company’s Detox 2020 Plan which embodies the “clean factory” approach for the elimination and phase-out of an extensive list of hazardous substances from its manufacturing processes.

Greenpeace also refers to Inditex’s timely compliance with its commitment to eliminating perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), having already replaced them with safer alternatives available in the marketplace, and to its root causes programme for determining the source of hazardous chemicals when they occur.

Media Contact:
Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Source: Inditex

Posted on by

Zara opens new store at 503-511 Broadway in the heart of Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood

New York, NY, 2016-Mar-07 — /EPR Retail News/ — The building on 503-511 Broadway has one of the neighborhood’s most iconic nineteenth-century façades

Zara opens the doors of its new 47,361 ft2 flagship store on 503-511 Broadway today. With an unbeatable location in the heart of Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, one of the world’s best known shopping districts, this new location on the block between Broome and Spring Streets represents some of the best late-nineteenth century retail architecture in the city.

Inditex Chairman, Pablo Isla, has underscored the importance of this opening and stressed that “it is particularly relevant for several reasons: the quality and size of its location, the environmental component that promotes the goals of our eco-efficient store project, its design, and its technological proposal. From today forward this new flagship will undoubtedly be a global benchmark”.

Manhattan’s newest Zara boasts three floors of retail space, ample room for showcasing everything the brand has to offer women, men and kids for Spring/Summer 2016. The store is designed entirely by Zara’s architecture team, who were faced with the challenge of blending the city’s past with its future. Massive effort was made to recover the building’s landmark features. Its original cast iron façade, interior and brick wall, which now blends with a rationalist and airy interior that features beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainability, the guiding principles of Zara’s image.

In keeping with Inditex Group’s aim to have 100% eco-efficient stores by 2020, Zara SoHo sets the standards for highly demanding sustainability measures across all its processes, combining these efforts with energy efficiency and recycling in order to consume 30% less energy and 50% less water compared to a conventional store. Backed by these sustainability-oriented features, Zara SoHo has applied for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, awarded to green buildings by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a third-party organization.

Zara’s new SoHo venue, purchased by the brand in 2015, was built in 1878 by architect John B. Snook and is one of the emblematic buildings found in the area known as the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District, named for the widespread use of this material.

Zara now boasts eight stores in Manhattan, where the brand opened its first store outside of the Iberian Peninsula in 1989, after setting up shop in the city’s most popular shopping destinations including Fifth Avenue, Lexington Avenue, and 34th Street. Zara also opened a new store at 222 Broadway in late 2015, taking over a new space in the heart of the city’s Financial District.

From San Diego and Seattle to Houston, Honolulu and New York, Zara has opened the doors of major new stores across the US in 2015. After unveiling the new Zara SoHo, Inditex Group now has 75 stores in the country (71 Zara and 4 Massimo Dutti stores), and customers in the US can also shop Zara Home online, the Group’s home textile and décor brand.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

###

Zara opens new store at 503-511 Broadway in the heart of Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood

Zara opens new store at 503-511 Broadway in the heart of Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood

Posted on by

Inditex rated Silver Clas position according to the Sustainability Yearbook 2016 by RobecoSAM

  • Inditex is rated as one of the top companies in sustainability worldwide by RobecoSAM
  • The report analyses over 3,000 companies from 59 sectors worldwide on economic, environmental and social dimenssions

Arteixo, Spain, 2016-Jan-22 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex has been rated as the Silver Clas position (ranked in the 54th position) according to the Sustainability Yearbook 2016 compiled by the expert consultant in this field, RobecoSAM, scoring 81 out of a 100. To put this in context, the sector average was 37 out of 100.The Yearbook serves as the yardstick for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI).

This annual assessment analyses over 3,000 companies from 59 sectors all over the world on economic, environmental and social dimensions; the Sustainability Yearbook highlights the companies at the forefront of sustainability developments. In this year’s assessment, in which a total of 123 retailers participated.

In presenting the results of its evaluation in the Retailing category, RobecoSAM underscored the fact that “brand management is a key success factor”, while warning that “successful retailers also need to continue to develop new strategies and technologies to retain and analyse customers’ purchasing habits, as well as implement more responsive and tailored customer relationship management systems”.

Sustainability is an strategic issue in every process of the Inditex Group, which is commited to achieve ethical, safe and environmental products and that is commited with the whole society.  This philosophy is known as‘Right to Wear’.

Click here to see the report.

For any press request please contact with:
Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA
Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Posted on by

Inditex to allocate €3.7m to Water.org to facilitate access to safe water and sanitation to those with scarce resources

The contribution will facilitate more than 33,000 microloans for this purpose and will benefit more than 160,000 people in Bangladesh and Cambodia.

Arteixo, Spain, 2015-12-4 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex will allocate €3.7m to Water.org to facilitate access to safe water and sanitation to those with scarce resources. On December 3, the Group’s chairman, Pablo Isla, and Water.org CEO Gary White, (who co-founded Water.org with Matt Damon), have signed a four-year Partnership Agreement between both organisations at Inditex’s head office in Arteixo (A Coruña).

As per the agreement, Water.org will allocate almost €3m to its WaterCredit programme. The programme will empower people with low incomes in developing countries to gain access to small loans for water and sanitation, increasing the population’s access to these basic necessities. In particular, it will expand the scope of activities already underway in Bangladesh and will develop this initiative in Cambodia, which will directly improve the lives of more than 160,000 people in both countries.

The WaterCredit model is achieved in conjunction with rigorously selected local partners, principally microfinance institutions, which secure capital for the loans themselves. In turn, this enables philanthropic investments to make a greater and more efficient impact.

A quarter of the overall contribution to Water.org will be sent to the funds reservation for research and development, New Ventures Fund, which the NGO will use to discover new ways to combat the water crisis. Inditex will serve on the Council of the R&D fund, in order to analyse the annual developments.

Inditex Global Water Management Strategy

Inditex considers investment in social programmes to be a fundamental pillar in improving global well-being and in strengthening the communities with which it interacts. Accordingly, the collaboration with Water.org is closely related to both the Inditex community investment policy; as well as the company’s commitment to using sustainable water supplies, one of the key resources in the textile industry. The Inditex Global Water Management Strategy constitutes a roadmap, which allows the Group to collaborate with special interest groups concerned with sustainable and rational water management (suppliers, clients, employees, administrations and NGOs).

Water.org 
For more than twenty years, Water.org has been at the forefront of developing and delivering solutions to the water crisis. Founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, Water.org pioneers innovative, community-driven and market-based initiatives to ensure all people have access to safe water and sanitation; giving women hope, children health and communities a future. To date, Water.org has positively transformed the lives of more than three million people living around the world.

For more information about Water.org´s activity, please click here

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

SOURCE: Inditex

###

Inditex to allocate €3.7m to Water.org to facilitate access to safe water and sanitation to those with scarce resources

Inditex to allocate €3.7m to Water.org to facilitate access to safe water and sanitation to those with scarce resources

Posted on by

Inditex: Zara Home to launch its online platform in Australia

  •  Zara Home Australia chosen as the Inditex Group’s début e-commerce platform in the Southern Hemisphere
  • The product catalogue available at www.zarahome.com includes home textiles from sheets and towels to tablecloths as well as a selection of furniture, dishware, cutlery, home decoration objects and gifts
  • The online milestone coincides with the opening of the chain’s #500 store in Sydney, its first in this city and second in Australia
  • The new establishment, a flagship store spanning 480m2 in Pitt Street Mall, will showcase the firm’s newest store image
  • The design teams will launch two collections a year, tracking all the latest trends, and the store will be stocked with new items twice weekly

Arteixo, Spain, 2015-12-4 — /EPR Retail News/ — Zara Home, the Inditex Group trademark devoted to homewear and home decor, is due to launch its online platform in Australia (www.zarahome.com) on 3 December.

This launch marks the start of Inditex’s e-commerce operations in the Southern Hemisphere. This move emulates the decision taken back in 2007 to use Zara Home as the first Group retail format to spearhead online sales. The rollout of Inditex’s first virtual store in Australasia coincides, moreover, with the opening of the chain’s 500th establishment, namely a 480m2 flagship store in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall.

The product catalogue available at the new online store includes home textiles from sheets and towels to tablecloths as well as a selection of furniture, dishware, cutlery, home decoration objects and gift items; in short, all the same products as are available in the physical stores.

The e-commerce platform will also be configured for the chain’s official app which is available in iOS and Android format. www.zarahome.com users will be offered new items weekly and monthly lookbooks and videos with all the latest trends.
To celebrate its arrival in Australia, all orders placed online during the first week following the launch will enjoy free delivery.

Zara Home store #500

In parallel to the arrival of www.zarahome.com in the Australian market, the Inditex Group’s homeware chain will inaugurate its 500th store in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall. The new establishment, a two-storey flagship store spanning 480m2, will accommodate all of the brand’s collections, including the Zara Home Kids line.

The establishment will showcase an innovative store design, in keeping with the newest Zara Home image being deployed worldwide. The architecture team has sought to respect the building’s original façade, which is punctuated by characteristic gold logos and white lattice anagrams on the windows.

The store combines a vanguard and elegant design with a penchant for simplicity and respect for nature, as is evident in the materials used. The neutral colour palette, the use of chestnut timber and marble floors which echo mother-of-pearl are some of the hallmark traits of this new Zara Home store in Sydney.

As with the rest of the Zara Home stores around the world, the Sydney store will launch two collections a year. To this end, the design teams will present ideas which pick up on the latest trends each season. In parallel, the product range will be refreshed with new items twice a week.

About Zara Home
Zara Home is the Inditex Group chain specialised in homewear and home decor. Its collections take their inspiration from the latest fashion trends and materialise in a catalogue encompassing home textiles, such as bedding, towels and tablecloths, as well as furniture, dishware, cutlery, ornaments, gift items, loungewear and a line of bathroom and bodycare products. Since its launch in 2003, Zara Home has grown rapidly and its footprint currently extends to 62 markets, including Australia, with a total of 500 stores.

Moreover, it sells its products online in 22 markets. Underpinned by a team of over 3,500 professionals, the brand offers the latest trends in home decor and fashion every season, restocking and rolling out new products across its store network every week.

Zara Home – the milestones

  • 2003 – Zara Home was set up as an Inditex Group retail format in the month of August. By the end of that year it had already opened 26 stores: 22 in Spain, two in Portugal, one in the UK and one in Greece.
  • 2004 – Zara Home registered substantial growth in its second year in existence, opening 36 new stores and entering two new markets: Mexico and Netherlands.
  • 2005 – The trademark forged ahead with its expansion, opening 48 new establishments and penetrating nine new countries by year-end: Italy, Belgium, Cyprus, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Andorra.
  • 2006 – Zara Home disembarked in France. By October of that year, the Inditex Group store network reached the 3,000 mark as Zara Home opened a new store in Valencia. The brand ended that year with 152 stores worldwide.
  • 2007 – Zara Home penetrated four new markets: Qatar, Jordan, Oman and Lebanon. That same year it would initiate online selling in 14 European markets. Sales floor expansion, meanwhile, continued apace, with 52 new store openings.
  • 2008 – Zara Home established itself in four new countries: Romania, Malta, Bahrain and Morocco. That year it also inaugurated a flagship store in Saint Petersburg (Russia) in a neoclassical building on the city’s emblematic Nevsky street, with new openings that year tallying 35.
  • 2009 – Zara Home opened the doors of its first ‘eco-efficient’ store, on Portal del L’Angel street in Barcelona. It was the first European establishment to obtain LEED certification, endorsing compliance with the most stringent sustainable building standards. It also opened its first store in Poland that year and ended 2009 with 22 new openings.
  • 2010 – Zara Home unveiled a flagship store in Milan (Italy), on Piazza San Babila. That same year, a total of 27 new stores opened their doors for the first time.
  • 2011 – The homeware brand opened its maiden store in Asia: in Peking. In November of that year, Zara Home celebrated its #300 store opening when it opened a flagship store in the heart of A Coruña (Spain).
  • 2012 – Zara Home chose Sao Paulo for its first store in Brazil. That year it also penetrated four new markets: Colombia, Peru, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. 2012 was also marked by the inauguration of the chain’s e-commerce platform in the US.
  • 2013 – The brand celebrated its tenth anniversary with store openings in 11 new markets: Canada, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Panama, Thailand, Taiwan, Sweden and Uruguay. And it opened two new flagship stores: one on Paris’s Champs Elysees and one on Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia.
  • 2014 – Zara Home rolled out its online platform in Mexico and Russia. The chain’s bricks & mortar presence was extended to encompass South Korea, Hungary and Algeria.
  • 2015 – Having docked in Australia (Melbourne in February and Sydney in December), Chile, Austria and Switzerland, Zara Home has extended its physical reach to 62 markets, ending the year with 500 stores worldwide. It also initiated online sales in Australia, thereby spearheading the Inditex Group’s e-commerce strategy for the Southern Hemisphere.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

SOURCE: Inditex Group

###

Inditex: Zara Home to launch its online platform in Australia

Inditex: Zara Home to launch its online platform in Australia

Posted on by

Inditex to allocate EUR 2.3 million to four humanitarian initiatives by Doctors Without Borders in 2015

Arteixo, Spain, 2015-11-15 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex’s contribution is allocated to four projects: aid for Syrian refugees from the Turkish province of Kilis, aid for the Emergency Unit of the NGO and collaboration with two initiatives for medical and nutritional cooperation in India.

Inditex will allocate 2.3 million euro to four humanitarian initiatives by Doctors Without Borders in 2015. The company’s president, Pablo Isla, and the general director of Doctors Without Borders (DWB) in Spain, Joan Tubau, have today renewed three collaboration projects with a value of 2 million euro in the headquarters of the NGO in Barcelona. This agreement forms part of the convention established between both entities in 2008, through which Inditex has contributed over 17 million euro. This year, Inditex will also contribute 300,000 euro for the Emergency Unit of the NGO, which it has been financing since 2011.

Within this agreement, Inditex will allocate one million euro to assist with access to healthcare for over 100,000 Syrian refugees that are gathered in the Turkish province of Kilis. Specifically, it will be allocated to a centre for primary medical consultations and psychological care, to which Inditex already allocated a million euro between 2013 and 2014, and where a specialised team of over 40 professionals are working.

This year, Inditex also continues with its support to the Emergency Unit of Doctors Without Borders, to which Inditex contributes 300,000 euro annually. This support makes it possible to coordinate the MSF medical teams that are specifically dealing with the humanitarian aid of the Syrian refugees who are located in the European border countries.

Fight against malnutrition and Kala-Azar disease in India

The two organisations have also signed a renewal of another two conventions, with a value of one million euro, in order to fight malnutrition in children and Kala-Azar disease in the state of Bihar, one of the poorest states in India and the state with the third highest number of children at risk of malnutrition. The program to fight severe malnutrition in children began in 2009 and, up to now, over 17,000 children have received treatment. In the same region, DWB also has a plan to fight against visceral leishmaniasis, or Kala-Azar, a disease transmitted by sand flies which is fatal if not treated on time. Since the beginning of this project, in 2007, DWB has treated over 12,000 people.

Doctors Without Borders and Inditex

Doctors Without Borders is a medical-based international humanitarian organisation which is present in over 70 countries and has approximately 500 projects underway. Its main task is to assist populations that are in a precarious situation and victims of catastrophes and armed conflict.

The collaboration of Inditex with DWB forms part of the social investment of the Group, which includes social programs in collaboration with non-profit entities with experience in the geographical area in which they are carried out. In this sense, in 2014, Inditex’s investment in social initiatives was 25.8 million euro, allocated to 460 projects in 351 entities.

Because of the situation of the refugee in Europe, during 2015 Inditex has also cooperated with Syrian refugees through an exceptional contribution of more than 100,000 units of clothing, valued at approximately 3 million euro and organised in collaboration with various NGO’s. In January and April of 2015, two contributions in kind were sent through the US non-profit organisation LIFE for Relief and Development, that were delivered to Iraq and Lebanon. In September 2015, a new clothing donation was sent to the Red Cross, which was distributed in Austria. In October 2015, over 7,000 refugees in Greece received a donation of garments organised through UNHCR.

Currently, Inditex is coordinating with Red Cross the delivery of other 19,000 garments that will be delivered in the following days.

SOURCE: INDITEX

###

Inditex to allocate EUR 2.3 million to four humanitarian initiatives by Doctors Without Borders in 2015

Inditex to allocate EUR 2.3 million to four humanitarian initiatives by Doctors Without Borders in 2015

Posted on by

Inditex opens new store under the umbrella of its workforce integration programme ‘for&from’

The network of workforce integration stores employs people with disabilities.

Arteixo, Spain, 2015-9-15 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex has opened a new store under the umbrella of its workforce integration programme, ‘for&from’. The new establishment, devoted to the Tempe brand – the Inditex company which designs, markets and distributes footwear and accessories sold by all of the Group’s brands, has a headcount of nine people with some form of physical or intellectual disability and is located in the Style Outlets shopping centre in the town of Culleredo (A Coruña).

A Coruna’s first ‘for&from’ store marks the third opened under this programme in Galicia and the ninth Group-wide. True to the management model used across all the establishments operated under this formula, it sells prior-season products at discounted prices. The profits earned are then earmarked to fund new community initiatives.

The overriding goal of the ‘for&from’ project is to create jobs for people with disabilities in a favourable environment designed to facilitate their integration into society by enabling, to the extent possible, a transition to employment in ordinary stores. COGAMI and APSA, two Spanish associations with proven track records working with the disabled which have been collaborating with the ‘for&from’ initiative for years, assisted with hiring and training the new store’s employees.

Barrier-free zone
The Tempe ‘for&from’ store in Culleredo, with a floor space stretching 400 m2, was designed with cutting-edge accessibility criteria in mind, layering in multiple architectural solutions such as Braille signage, shape- and colour-configured label reading and a friendly store layout and fixtures for customers with reduced mobility in order to adapt the space for a range of disabilities.

Thirteen years creating jobs for the disabled
With this new opening, Inditex’s ‘for&from’ workplace integration programme now employs 69 people with some form of physical or intellectual disability across nine stores operated under several of the Group’s retail trademarks. Elsewhere, ‘for&from’ runs three stores in Palafolls, Barcelona (Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Oysho); two in Allariz, Ourense (Massimo Dutti and Tempe); one Tempe store in Elche, Alicante; one Stradivarius store in Manresa, Barcelona; and one Massimo Dutti store in Llagostera, Girona.

In addition to demonstrating its ability to improve the quality of living of people with disabilities since it was created in 2002, the ‘for&from’ programme constitutes an important source of financing for Inditex’s partner charities and for getting new community projects off the ground.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

###

Inditex opens new store under the umbrella of its workforce integration programme ‘for&from'

Inditex opens new store under the umbrella of its workforce integration programme ‘for&from’

Posted on by

Inditex donates EUR 1.2 million to humanitarian aid programmes in Nepal; to be channelled through Red Cross, Oxfam and Caritas

The donations will go to the Red Cross, Oxfam and Caritas, three of the organisations with the most professionals on the ground in Nepal

Arteixo, Spain, 2015-4-28 — /EPR Retail News/ — Inditex will donate 1.2 million euros to humanitarian aid programmes in Nepal after the dramatic earthquake that hit the country on Saturday. This aid is channelled through three of the leading international organisations working in the area, specifically Red Cross, Oxfam and Caritas.

Inditex contacted these organisations immediately following the tragedy to find out where its donation could have the most impact. To that end, Inditex will donate 500,000 euros to Red Cross to meet the organisation’s most pressing emergency needs in Nepal, where teams are now providing support to tens of thousands of the displaced and homeless. The Red Cross is focusing on providing basic supplies for survival, especially blankets and tents to shelter those who have lost their homes, as well as facilitate permanent and stable health care.

The company will also allocate another 500,000 euros to support the work Oxfam is doing to organise a shipment of supplies related to water supply, sanitation and shelter for the victims, material that is crucial for preventing the spread of disease in these early days after the disaster.

Inditex also contacted Caritas to find out what the organisation needed in Nepal and will donate an additional 200,000 euros to provide emergency first response through the distribution of basic necessities. The objective is to provide food and temporary shelter to the greatest possible number of people over the next few critical hours for limiting the extent of the tragedy.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com

Posted on by

Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VDBO) ranks Inditex as the top-performing retailer with a score of 82 out of 100

In its appraisal, the jury emphasised Inditex’s work in ensuring living wages for the textile workers comprising its supply chain.

Arteixo, Spain, 2015-3-11 — /EPR Retail News/ — The Responsible Supply Chain Benchmark 2014 report prepared by the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VDBO) ranks Inditex as the top-performing retailer with a score of 82 out of 100. In the overall ranking, Inditex is one of the four sector winners, alongside technology player Philips (92%), food and beverage company Heineken (77%) and builder Royal BAM Group (75%), all of which Dutch companies.

This is the first time that the report assesses non-Dutch companies, to which end it selected candidates from the universe of companies analysed by Robeco SAM, the sustainability investing specialist within Dutch group Robeco. The methodology used by the judging panel is focused on achievement of tangible targets by the contending companies on each of the criteria analysed.

The Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VDBO), created 1995, works to create sustainable capital markets, markets that consider not only financial criteria but also non-financial, social and environmental criteria.

Inditex’s sustainability pledge is also evident in the scores obtained in other benchmark indices such as the FT4Good (rankings compiled by Ethical Investment Research Service) and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, in which the Group has featured non-stop since 2001, achieving an overall score in 2014 that places it ahead of 98% of its international retailing peers.

For any press request please contact with:

Communication and Corporate Affairs Division
Edificio Inditex
Avda. de la Diputación s/n
15143 – Arteixo
A Coruña – ESPAÑA

Tlf: +34 981 185 400
Fax: +34 981 185 544
comunicacion@inditex.com