Company Profile

Zara is a spanish fast fashion retailer based in Arteixo, Galicia. The company was founded in 1975 by
Amancio Ortega and Rosala Mera. It is the main brand of the Inditex group, the world's largest
apparel retailer. The fashion group also owns brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Bershka,
Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Uterqe. Zara as of 2017 manages up to 20 clothing collections
a year.

Amancio Ortega opened the first Zara store in 1975 in downtown A Corua, Galicia, Spain. Ortega
initially named the store Zorba after the classic film Zorba the Greek, but after learning there was a
bar with the same name two blocks away, they rearranged the letters molded for the sign to 'Zara.'
It is believed the extra 'a' came from an additional set of letters that had been made for the
company. The first store featured low-priced lookalike products of popular, higher-end clothing
fashions. Ortega opened additional stores throughout Spain. During the 1980s, Ortega changed the
design, manufacturing, and distribution process to reduce lead times and react to new trends in a
quicker way, which he called "instant fashions". The improvements included the use of information
technologies and using groups of designers instead of individuals.

In 1988, the company started its international expansion through Porto, Portugal. In 1989, it entered
the United States, and then France in 1990. During the 1990s, Zara expanded to Mexico (1992),
Greece, Belgium and Sweden (1993). In the early 2000s, Zara opened its first stores in Japan and
Singapore (2002), Russia and Malaysia (2003),China, Morocco, Estonia, Hungary and Romania
(2004), the Philippines, Costa Rica and Indonesia (2005),South Korea (2008), India (2010), and South
Africa and Australia (2011).

On September 2010, Zara launched its online boutique. The website began in Spain, the UK,
Portugal, Italy, Germany and France. In November that same year, Zara Online extended the service
to five more countries: Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Online stores
began operating in the United States in 2011, Russia and Canada in 2013, and Mexico, Romania, and
South Korea in 2014. Zara introduced the use of RFID technology in its stores in 2014. The RFID chips
are located in the security tags which are removed from clothing when it is purchased and can be
reused. The chip allows the company to quickly take inventory by detecting radio signals from the
RFID tags. When an item is sold, the stockroom is immediately notified so that the item can be
replaced. An item that is not on the shelf can easily be found with the RFID tag.

Zara stores have men's and women's clothing, as well as children's clothing (Zara Kids). Zara's
products are supplied based on consumer trends. Its highly responsive supply chain ships new
products to stores twice a week. After products are designed, they take ten to fifteen days to reach
the stores. All of the clothing is processed through the distribution center in Spain. New items are
inspected, sorted, tagged, and loaded into trucks. In most cases, the clothing is delivered within 48
hours. Zara produces over 450 million items per year