Inditex has 17 stores in Australia and is highly successful in the country
Inditex started operating in Australia five years ago and now has 17 stores in the country. At the end of 2015 it opened its first online store - a Zara Home - in the Southern Hemisphere. These facts all underscore the message conveyed by Jorge Savirón, from Inditex's department of systems and automation, who talked about the group's success and profitability in Australia.
The journalists of the Leaders Programme visited the company's logistics hub in Zaragoza and had the chance to see one of the world's largest fashion retailers at work. This hub is the second one built by the company and the first to incorporate automation systems.
Jorge Savirón explained during the visit that Europe remains Inditex's main market but the company is expanding, especially into Asia (mainly China and Russia) and, to a lesser extent, the US.
Inditex's logistics hub in Zaragoza ships Zara garments to 2,000 stores in the Northern Hemisphere. Items for the Southern Hemisphere are shipped from other hubs, as the seasons are not the same.
During the visit to the warehouse, which has a surface area of 260,000 sqm, the Leaders were able to observe the logistics management technology in place. 1,400 employees work in 24-hour shift patterns using a complex RFID system. The centre holds over 14 million items and this system allows them to be located in record time, with a margin for error of under 0.1%.
This versatility is largely due to the features of the group’s stores, which are located in high real estate value areas. Inditex's logistics system allows them to devote more space to exhibiting the items and less to storing them.
Over 110 trucks carry merchandise to the hub every day, and just as many leave it with cargo ready for distribution. A total of 70% of the input at the warehouse comes from suppliers in neighbouring countries (mainly the EU and Morocco), and the rest comes from markets further afield, such as Asia.
The company's success was also addressed during the visit. Since its humble origins in North-West Spain in 1963, the group has become the world’s largest fashion manufacturer and retailer, with over 7,000 stores, more than 150,000 employees and total revenues of 20.9 billion euros in 2015.
Australian Leaders Programme: Activity summary
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