New Sunday special project of Realnoe Vremya - amazing stories global brands
Today in Russia there is, perhaps, not a single person left who would not have heard of Zara stores and Pull&Bear, I wouldn't look at the windows of Bershka and Stradivarius at least once. fashion brands have already captured 96 countries of the world, and the total revenues of companies in 2018 alone significantly exceeded €3 billion. mass production clothes. Amancio Ortega, at 82, does not even have a completed secondary education, still avoids publicity, refuses royal receptions and is in the top ten the richest people peace. Read more in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
It would seem that nothing foreshadowed success
The founder of the Zara brand, Amancio Ortega Gaona, was born in 1936 in the small village of Busdongo de Arbaz in the northern province of Spain. He became the fourth child in the family. Father Antonio Rodriguez was the head of the railway station and an activist of the Communist Party, the mother of Josef Hernandez was doing housework at that time, so there was no steady income in the house. 3 months after the birth of Antonio in Spain began Civil War. After a brutally suppressed uprising in the country, the persecution of the communists is underway, the Ortega family has to flee to the west. They will be able to return to the country only after the end of World War II. Looking for a better life in 1949, the family moved to the large port province of La Coruña, but did not find a better life there. The head of the family gets a job as a simple worker on the railroad, and the mother goes to work as a maid.
Ortega's house was on the outskirts of the city and adjoined railway. The modest salary was not even enough to live until the end of the month. In 1950, Amancio left school in order to somehow align financial position families. Much later, in a conversation with a Spanish journalist and close friend Covadonga O "Shea, he recalled that such an impulsive step was his feat. Little Amancio witnessed a sad incident in grocery store: the seller refused his mother another loan, he no longer wanted to lend goods, and no pleas could convince the shopkeeper.
O'Shea's biographical book "The Man from Zara" was published in 2013 and instantly became a bestseller, because for many years the founder of one of the largest fashion corporations in the world carefully avoided the press.
Ortega himself and his empire, subsequently created on the basis of Zara, still “exist in closed mode”, without indulging the media with information beyond what is provided for by law. To get fresh pictures of the founder of Zara is still not available even from the most influential and authoritative publications in the world. In response to the reproaches of the media community, Ortega replies that before last days I would like to be able to have a coffee in peace and walk around Maria Pita Square in A Coruña, remaining incognito. In his entire life, and Ortega is now 82, he has given only three interviews.
At the age of 14, Amancio joined the Gala atelier. A small shop was engaged in sewing expensive shirts for wealthy residents of A Coruña, and Ortega's duties included cleaning, packaging and delivery of goods, in rare cases, a young messenger was even instructed to advise customers in the hall, which gave him particular pleasure.
“Our clients seem to have been talking about me to their boss because they noticed that from the moment I arrived, I took my job very seriously and with full responsibility,” recalls Amancio Ortega in The Man from Zara. “I still hold my first contract with Gala with great trepidation.”
A year later, a sociable and enterprising guy was hired as an assistant at the La Maja boutique, where at that time his brother and sisters Antonio, Josefa and Pepita Ortega were already working. It took less than a year young man in order to get promoted, at the age of 16, Amancio became the manager of the La Maja store. There Ortega met his faithful companion for many years and his future wife - Rosalia Mera Goyenchea. By the way, at the time of meeting Rosalia was also 16, and her story is no less impressive - at 11, the girl, like her future husband, left school to help her family. Rosalia went to study cutting and sewing, becoming an excellent dressmaker by the age of 15.
Rosalia Mera Goyenchea. Photo news.sky.com
Did you sell illiquid assets on the verge of ruin or laid the foundation for a global brand?
La Maja became the starting point for Amancio Ortega: here the young man studied all the nuances of purchasing and working with suppliers, delved into the intricacies of tailoring, dealt with the simple logistics at that time, finding “holes” and imperfections in literally every screw of the clothing manufacturing mechanism. In 1966, Amancio married Rosalia, the couple continued to work together.
Domestic media have been circulating information for many years that Ortega opened his own business at the age of 17, but in reality it took him another 10 long years to decide on this step. In 1936 the first family company Ortega is a modest tailoring workshop.
“I decided to follow the impulse and founded the company GOA Confessoines (the acronym consists of reverse tracing of Amancio Ortega's initials) with my brother Antonio. We opened an account for 2.5 thousand pesetas. My half-sister, who knew how to sew, and my first wife, Rosalia, made the famous quilted robes, very fashionable at that time,” recalls the founder of a fashion empire.
At first, only lingerie, pajamas, nightgowns and dressing gowns were sewn in the Ortega workshop, which really sold very well. Profit, which was small by all measures, was again invested in production, which made it possible to significantly expand the range, increase capacity, collect an impressive base of suppliers and textile workers who bought goods for resale. The entrepreneur created a kind of women's cooperative in La Coruna, in which hundreds of hired seamstresses worked - mostly the wives of local sailors who were at home and were ready to work efficiently for little money.
The history of Zara begins in 1975, when the Ortega couple opened the brand's first store. There is a version that Amancio was not going to engage in retail, and the opening of the store was rather a forced measure, since the German customer, who at the last moment refused a large consignment of goods already sewn by GOA Confessoines, left the company on the verge of ruin. Ortega were forced to go retail on their own in order to sell illiquid assets. However, careful choice of location outlet says quite the opposite - the store was opened on the central city avenue of La Coruña, opposite a large department store, which clearly became a costly investment for the entrepreneur.
The first Zara store was opened in 1975 on the main street of the resort town of La Coruña. The main office of the company is located in the same city. Photo database.az
The first name - Zorba - Amancio gave the store in honor of the hero of the drama of the Greek director Michalis Kakoyanis. Zorba the Greek was released nine years earlier and received three Oscar statuettes at once. Much to Ortega's regret, it was not possible to obtain the rights to use the character's name as a trademark. The store was named Zara, according to one version, in honor of the Spanish Zaragoza (Spanish: Zaragoza).
Ortega's Fashionable Expansion: Great Deceiver or Skillful Strategist?
Under the Zara GOA brand, Confessoines produces men's and women's clothing, the main characteristics of which are quality, natural materials and compliance with the latest fashion trends. The store concept appeals to consumers. In the next 10 years, the brand is actively expanding: stores appear in all major cities Spain. All this time, Ortega personally controls all stages of production, distribution and sales. In 1985, when it became clear that the brand had every chance of success abroad, Amancio Ortega founded the Inditex holding, under which Zara has been operating since that moment.
Inditex has never hidden that it made a bet on copying ready-to-wear models of famous fashion houses - Ortega's design pool constantly monitors fresh gloss, creating its own budget options based on couturier collections. By the way, in 2011, the company almost paid for its impudence - French designer Christian Louboutin filed a lawsuit against Inditex for two thousand pounds sterling for copying the signature red sole of Christian Louboutin shoes in Zara shoes. To everyone's surprise, after a year of litigation, the court sided with Ortega's company. The Louboutin story is far from the only one on the list of Inditex accusations of plagiarism, but the holding still manages to defend its right to “catch fashion trends” on the world catwalks.
Today, the Inditex holding owns eight brands. Photo retaildetail.eu
In December 1988, Zara opens its first store abroad, in Portugal. A year later, the brand enters the United States, and then to France.
Affordable clothing that is not inferior to the models of great designers, of course, was a success. But this is by no means what made the Spanish fashion empire one of the most successful in the world. Ortega is called the founder of the practical theory of "fast fashion". From the very beginning, the businessman realized the main mistakes of competitors: a weak connection between production and points of sale, a long period for the release of new collections, huge costs for storing goods in a warehouse and, as a result, overpricing.
“When I arrived in Paris in 1990, shortly after the opening of our first store, next to the Place de l "Opéra, I immediately rushed there to see everything with my own eyes. When I tried to enter, I could not get through the line of people, crowding even on the street. I stood in the doorway, sobbing like a child. I could not contain my feelings, "said Amancio Ortega, talking with O" Shea.
Inditex operates without intermediaries, with full control over material procurement, logistics, design development, distribution and sales. The production of the model takes no more than two weeks, while the process of competitors can be delayed for six months. In addition, the release of collections is carried out in small batches. Stores around the world quickly send sales data for each model to the office, and production instantly responds to demand. Collections change steadily almost every 3 weeks.
"We have the opportunity to short time to completely abandon a line if it is not for sale, we can fill the collections with new colors and create a new style in just a few days, ”explains Ortega in The Man from Zara.
Thus, the company does not spend extra money on warehousing things and has the opportunity to refuse to the maximum total sales of things that are not in demand. According to the founder of Zara, the stake in his business is on the number of items sold.
From the 90s, Inditex began to collect brands, hoping to expand target audience. In 1991, within the holding, a retail network youth fashion Pull & Bear, in 1995 Ortega begins to buy shares of the Massimo Dutti brand (clothing for wealthy people), in 1998 the holding launches a chain of stores for young women Bershka, in 1999 buys the Spanish trademark Stradivarius. Today, Inditex owns eight brands (in addition to those listed - the Oysho lingerie chain, the Zara Home subsidiary, and the Uterqüe designer accessories market).
In 1986, the Ortega divorced, but Rosalia Mera remained in business, the couple managed to keep business relationship. At the same time, the holding announces a course for expansion - stores are opening throughout Europe, in Canada, Brazil, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Uruguay and dozens of other countries. The most profitable brand of the company was (and still is) Zara. According to Bloomberg, in the early 90s, 1,445 branded stores were opened in the world, which annually brought the holding around 340 million euros in net profit, and from 1994 to 1999, profits grew by 39% annually.
Ortega appointed Pablo Isla as his successor. Photo myfin.by
The latest history of Inditex: the overthrow of Gates and the change of power
In 2001, the previously closed company Inditex placed a 26% stake in open market: their rate instantly soared by 20%. From that moment on, Amancio Ortega began to attract the views of the world community, although the businessman himself did not change his views, still refusing any comments and contacts with the press. In 2011, Ortega entered the top ten richest people in the world, according to Forbes, and on October 23, 2015, the owner of Inditex for the first time managed to move Bill Gates himself, the traditional leader of the top, from the podium. By the way, Ortega has been on the first line three times already. Now, according to the Forbes online scoreboard, the founder of the fashion empire is in sixth position with a fortune of $ 64.3 billion.
In 2011, at the age of 75, Amancio Ortega announced his resignation as chairman and executive director Inditex. He appointed as his successor an experienced manager who has proven himself in senior positions in large corporations - Pablo Isla. The resignation of executive powers ended in December 2017, when Ortega left all his positions in 53 subsidiaries of the textile group. Despite his formal retirement, Ortega remains the owner of a 59.9% stake in Inditex through his investment company Pontegadea and, according to legend, still often appears in the design department of the company, supervising employees.
By appointing Isla as the captain, Ortega obviously did not fail: by the end of 2017, the second CEO of Inditex managed to double the holding's most selling network (70% of income) - Zara. Inditex, according to Thomson Reuters, is valued at 93 billion euros. On this moment There are 7,442 Inditex branded stores in the world, and the number of employees has exceeded 170,000. Another merit of Pablo Isla is called successful start transition of holding in online. Already now at 49 largest countries around the world there are online stores Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear and Bershka. According to CNBC, by 2020 Pablo Isla plans to launch online sales in all 96 countries where the holding's brands are present. For 2017-2018 financial year net profit Inditex reached 3.368 billion euros.
Amancio Ortega with his daughter Marta. Photo euromag.ru
The Spanish media call the youngest daughter of the founder of Inditex, Marta Ortega Perez, the future heiress of the corporation (since 2001, Flora Perez has been the wife of the billionaire, Marta is the only child of Amancio from his second marriage, now the girl is 35 years old). Marta Perez received an excellent education and from the age of 18 began to enter into family business. At the insistence of her father, the girl began her career as a simple sales assistant in one of the Spanish Zara stores, Marta managed Inditex outlets in London and New York, and a few years ago she took a seat on the board of directors of a fashion corporation. CEO Inditex is still Pablo Isla.
In the last issue of a special project about the history of the rise and fall of one of the most successful startups of the decade - the Instagram application of Stanford alumnus Kevin Systrom.
Internet newspaper Realnoe Vremya
A country: Russia
Address: Novosibirsk, Russia
Field of activity: Wholesale / Distribution
Website: http://www.inditex.com
A fashion chain providing jobs for employment
The activities of the Inditex group of companies are aimed at distributing and providing the end customer with a wide range of fashion clothes and accessories. She began her journey in 1963, when a factory specializing in the production of clothes for women was established. Almost 60 years have passed since then, and in our time the company has not only strengthened its modern market, but also increased the range of services provided. The direction of the functioning of the enterprise is aimed at the implementation of all processes accompanying the design, development and distribution of various models women's clothing.
Features of work in "Inditex"
This company operates in various fields starting from the production of products and ending with their sale. Thanks to this diversity, applicants will not be limited in their choice of position, which will allow them to choose a vacancy in accordance with their professional profile and preferences. The most demanded vacancies of the company include creative professions that require creativity and design ability.
Zara, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Uterqüe. Stradivarius - these fashion stores clothes are known to every modern woman. Did you know that all these brands belong to the same production holding - Industria de Diseno Textil Sociedad Anonima (Inditex)? The owner of the holding, Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega, has been leading in the ranking of the richest people on the planet for several years in a row. In 2012, he was recognized as the richest person in Europe by Bloomberg, with a net worth of $39.5 billion. In 2013, his fortune was already estimated by Forbes magazine at 57 billion, which put him in third place among the world's billionaires, moving the legendary Warren Buffett in the ranking. And in 2015 and 2016, according to Forbes, he became the richest man on the planet with a fortune of about $ 80 billion, overtaking Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the Sultan of Brunei and other world rich people.
How did it happen that the richest man in the world is also the most unknown? We are sure that a little more than everyone has heard the name of the same Bill Gates, and you most likely see the name of Amancio Ortega for the first time. This man does not pose for cameras and never gives interviews. Almost nothing is known about his life, journalists even called him "the nightmare of the paparazzi." The only time and for only 15 minutes, he allowed journalists to photograph himself in 2001 at a public report of the company. Then he answered only one question - about why he leads such a reclusive lifestyle. The tycoon said he didn't want to be recognized on the street by anyone other than his family and friends. He also asked all his acquaintances not to talk about the details of his life, and no one violated his request.
The more valuable are the crumbs of information that are known about him. And here is what is known about him.
Amancio Ortega Gaona was born on March 28, 1936 in the Spanish provincial town of Busdongo, near Leon. The childhood of the richest man on the planet was the most ordinary. His parents were not millionaires who gave their offspring a good start in life. Unlike other European billionaires such as Georg Scheffler, Liliane Betancourt or Gerald Grosvenor (otherwise known as the Duke of Westminster), he did not inherit his wealth. His parents were not even middle class. Amancio Ortega's father worked as a railway worker, his mother was a servant. Even in the conditions of the economic crisis in post-war Spain, Ortega's father's salary was considered very modest - he received only 300 pesetas a month. To understand the size of this amount, imagine that a dozen chicken eggs cost about 30 pesetas - a tenth of this salary. In addition to Amancio, the family had two more children - older brother Antonio and sister Josepha.
The family lived so poorly that Amancio had to leave school and go to work. He was only 13 years old. One day he went grocery shopping with his mother and witnessed a humiliating scene when, despite his mother's pleas, the seller refused to give her a further loan for groceries, because they already owed him a large amount. All the greengrocers, butchers and bakers from the surrounding shops refused to sell on credit, and at some point the family had nothing to eat. It was a turning point in Amancio's life - his biographer Covadonga O'Shea writes about it this way: “In these terrible days, he first realized all the drama and all the hopelessness of poverty, which should never again be repeated either in his life or in his future family ".
The first job of the future textile magnate was working as a courier in a haberdashery store. When Amancio was 14 years old, the family moved to the city of La Coruña, where Amancio's father was offered a job. There, Amancio got a job at the Gala Notariado clothing store on the corner of Federico Tapia and Plaza de Galizia. This store still exists. True, according to the owner, visitors to the store do not so much buy his products - shirts, cardigans and hats - as they try to find out details about the youth of the multibillionaire who once worked here as an errand boy.
Later, Amancio Ortega got a job in one of the Spanish ateliers. There he learned how to sew clothes, shirring and draping fabrics. Soon he got a job as an apprentice to a fashionable Spanish designer who once said this about him: “Amancio is a hard-working guy, of course, but he cannot become a good tailor. He doesn't know how to communicate with people. The tailor does half of the work with his tongue, but he is silent all the time, shy. Let him do something else, sewing is not his destiny. Ortega has always been modest, bordering on shyness. The only time journalists were allowed to photograph him, everyone could see how hard it was for him.
Working as an apprentice, Ortega not only learned to sew, studied fashion and developed a sense of beauty. He studied the needs of customers and thought about how to meet the demand. In his study of pricing, he saw that the cost of clothing rose as he moved from sewing workshop to the warehouse - from the warehouse to the wholesale dealer - from the dealer to retail store. He realized that if you shorten this path, the price of things will become much more attractive.
But for Ortega, improving logistics was not the only way win a buyer. He was always fascinated by the idea of making luxury items available to the public. The idea was not new - many entrepreneurs of that time made their fortune by following this path. For example, the founder of Ikea, who made designer furniture accessible to all segments of the population. In the 1960s, Ortega took a job as a sales manager in a clothing store. In addition to working in the store, he began to buy inexpensive fabrics in Barcelona and sew clothes from them. For some models, he himself came up with patterns, but mostly he copied clothes from famous fashion designers, adapting them to the mass buyer. His clothes were used in great demand, Spanish boutiques began to buy it. Within 3 years, Amancio saved up enough money to open his own clothing business called Confecciones GOA (the abbreviation GOA is Amancio Ortega Gaon's initials, read backwards). It was a family company, where Amancio himself was responsible for the development of models, his brother Antonio was in charge of commercial matters, his sister was in charge of accounting, and his wife Rosalia Mera acted as a business partner. The future billionaire began by sewing underwear, bathrobes and nightgowns.
First own shop clothes Amancio Ortega opened shortly before his 40th birthday. It is interesting that this happened unplanned. GOA garments received a large order for bathrobes from a German client, and Ortega had already invested all the money he had in the tailoring when the client canceled the order at the last moment. To save the company from bankruptcy, Ortega and his wife decided to open their own store and sell their products there. Thus, the Zara store was born. At first, they wanted to name the store Zorba after Anthony Quinn's character from the movie Zorba the Greek. But the name Zorba was already registered to another company, and after some deliberation, the store got the name Zara, which sounded feminine and exotic (pronounced “Thara” in Spanish).
Ten years after the opening of the first Zara, a parent company, Inditex, was formed to handle the rapid expansion. In 1989, the first overseas Zara store was opened in Porta, Portugal. Now, after 40 years of dynamic development, the Zara network includes 2,000 stores in 88 countries around the world. In addition to Zara, Amancio Ortega owns Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Oysho, Bershka, Zara Home, Uterqüe and Lefties brands.
The richest representative of the fashion world never attends shows, fashion weeks and other public or private events of the industry. But shortly after each fashion week, Zara stores are filled with designs that are very similar to the prêt-a-porte clothes introduced just a few days ago by high-end designers. This situation infuriates fashion designers and delights Zara customers who cannot afford an expensive original, and do not see much point in it.
The main feature of Zara, which allowed her to get ahead, is an instant response to customer demand. Firstly, the company was able to reduce the time for new models to go on sale to a ridiculous 10-15 days! Yes, yes, design, pattern development, tailoring, delivery to a retail store - all this within two weeks! The company's team employs more than 200 designers who respond to the slightest fluctuations in demand. Secondly, in order to better understand the needs of customers, the Zara team analyzes not only the actual sales, but also the goods that customers took for fitting, but for some reason did not buy. This analysis gives an understanding of what needs to be improved, helps to identify customer expectations. Thirdly, the company managed to get away from the tendency to locate clothing production in Southeast Asia to reduce the cost of products. Spain produces 50% of Zara clothes, 26% in other parts of Europe and only 24% in Asia, Africa and other countries. Instead of saving on the quality of tailoring, Zara saves on advertising. According to High Point University economics professor Stephanie Crofton, Inditex spends only 0.3% of its revenue on advertising, compared to 3.5-5%, which is about the same as other major clothing brands. Fourth, Zara releases clothes in super-small batches and never re-sews even the most successful models. So they reduce the risks of increasing stocks, and provide customers with some kind of exclusivity.
In 2011, when the founder of Zara turned 75, he announced his resignation. The post of president of the holding was taken by former vice president and assistant Pablo Isla. Rumor has it that Amancio Ortega plans to make his successor the youngest daughter from his second marriage, Marta.
In total, Amancio Ortega has three children: daughter Sandra and son Marcos from his first wife Rosalia Mera, and daughter Marta from his second wife Flora Perez Marcote. They say that the eldest daughter of a billionaire flatly refused to do business. She inherited more than 4.7 billion euros from her mother, who died in 2012, owns a 7% stake in Inditex and, according to Forbes, is one of the richest and most powerful women in Europe. Son Marcos is not able to manage the company, since he has been disabled since birth - the boy was born with cerebral palsy. Shortly after his birth, his parents opened charitable foundation support for children with such disabilities.
The billionaire divorced his first wife in 1986, but there were rumors that the couple had not been a family for a long time by that time, keeping the relationship only for the sake of business. The billionaire married his second wife in 2001, they are together to this day.
Ortega spends millions of dollars every year protecting his anonymity. Perhaps there will be no more than 200 pictures in which you can see him and his family members. Bits of information about his life can be seen either in the official Zara news or in his biographies written by the official biographer Covadonga O'Shea (family friend, teacher at the fashion school at the University of Navarra) or Xabier Blanco (Spanish journalist, carefully tracks the career of the founder of Zara ).
He never arranges parties, does not go to public events, but what is there - he refused an invitation to dinner from the Queen of Spain herself! His modesty is also evidenced by the fact that for many years he lives in a five-story building in A Coruña, and when he worked for the company, he dined in the common dining room with his employees. His daughter Marta, who is to inherit her father's fashion empire, worked in the holding, starting from the lowest positions.
The Spanish billionaire knows how not only to make money, but also to spend. For example, in 2011, Ortega bought the 43-story Picasso skyscraper in downtown Madrid for $536 million. He also owns a Falcon 900 private jet, a hotel on the coast of Miami, various houses and apartments around the world, and his own racetrack. The billionaire bought real estate as an investment, he rents out his houses and does not leave A Coruña. But the hippodrome was bought for the soul. Ortega has a real passion for horses and racing, as does his daughter Marta, who even married equestrian star Sergio Alvarez Moya.
The great merit of this man is that he made fashionable designer clothes available to everyone, and not just to the elite segments of society. Many have tried to replicate his business model, but so far no one has succeeded. The speed with which he captures fashion trends and embodies them in the clothes of his brand is truly breathtaking. Many things played a role in his success - his own talent, and the right people who helped him, and his faith in success, and, of course, a happy coincidence. But the start was made when Ortega saw poverty in all its ugliness, on that memorable day when his mother refused to sell food on credit. On that day, the future billionaire promised himself never to humiliate himself or starve again. He kept his word.
Getting to Barcelona, it is impossible not to notice the scale of the shopping industry. Stores of different brands can be repeated on the busiest streets of the city. So, Portal del Angel, next to Plaza Catalunya, amazes with the number of boutiques and shopping centers, where only such brands as Zara, Bershka, Pull and Bear immediately catch the eye. The growth of the Inditex group is unstoppable - it has been going on for several years now, with new stores continuing to open around the world, and the increase in sales seems to hit the ceiling. Even economic crisis did not shock the company, whose owner, Amancio Ortega, is the richest man in the world, according to Forbes magazine. Its rapid online growth and expansion into new markets is one of the Group's key success factors, but why do shoppers choose to buy their clothes from Zara or Pull and Bear and other Group stores? In this article, we will talk about secret of the Inditex group.
Source: visualhunt
What is the secret of one of the brightest success stories of the Inditex Group
The website of the Inditex group states that it began in 1963 as a women's clothing factory and currently has over 7,000 employees on five continents and that the company has always had one goal: to listen carefully to customers in order to offer them what they want.
- Opening of new stores. Inditex is one of the largest clothing retail groups in the world and has eight commercial formats with more than 7000 stores in 91 countries. Zara has opened about 94 stores in different parts of the world, from Brussels to Amsterdam. Zara Home has made 25 openings, the most important in Berlin, while Pull and Bear has opened in Switzerland.
- Conquering new markets. Asia has been the cornerstone for the new growth of the Group, with special attention to Chinese consumers. The continent currently represents 25.2 percent of the group's business, while the Americas account for 14.7 percent. Europe accounts for 42.7 percent of the profits.
- New sales spaces. One of the great advantages of Inditex is the ability to adapt to new fashions. Flagship stores open. The shops on Paseo de Gracia or Serrano Street in Madrid are examples of how the Galician chain is expanding for consumers in Spain.
- Online store. More and more consumers are shopping online, the Group's brands are already represented in 28 countries of the world in online sales format. The Group's international expansion now extends to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, which have joined the Group's Internet business.
- Social media. Although they have a very clear strategy, Zara, the Group's flagship brand, has an undeniable influence on social media. Their profiles tend to replicate their campaigns and products from your online store. Zara has already reached one million followers on Twitter, while Instagram has 6.2 million followers. In order to make a calculation of the group's actual influence, we must add the followers of all Pull and Bear, for example reaching 273k followers on Twitter, a profile that rises to 963k in the case of Instagram.
The founder of the Inditex clothing chain (which is better known in Russia by the Zara brand) Amancio Ortega is one of the richest people in the world with a fortune of over $70 billion. He even once held the first line in the world ranking of billionaires. Share prices on the stock market jump daily, he lost the first line, but does it matter if a person has built the largest chain of clothing stores in the world?
About how they work in this giant corporation simple people, Reconomica talked to a former employee of the Stradivarius store . Since there is only one network, if you are interested in the same Zara as an employer, this review will be useful to you.
My experience as a sales assistant in a clothing store
My name is Evgenia Kovaleva, I am from Krasnodar, I am 21 years old and I studied at a pedagogical college, I plan to get a higher education, I have not worked by profession yet. I worked at the Stradivarius clothing store for 4 months, then quit.
Inditex Brands
Stradivarius- one of the stores of the Inditex network, this network belongs to Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti and others popular stores. Stradivarius is a clothing store, like other stores of the above company. There are a lot of stores of this network throughout Russia, as well as around the world, therefore, the revenue from Inditex stores is very large. Corporate rules and standards are plus or minus the same everywhere, so if you want to get a job in another chain store, for example, Zara, everything described below will apply to it.
Inditex clothing stores are constantly in need of employees, because they are mostly students who come and go. Everyone who comes to work in a clothing store for the first time first works as consultants, then, if you work long and hard, you can become an administrator, who, in fact, is the same ordinary consultant, but he has a little more responsibilities and a slightly higher salary. On average, throughout the network, a beginner receives 20-22 thousand rubles a month (in my region): salary + bonus.
What does a Sales Consultant do?
Getting a job as a sales assistant, you will simultaneously hang new things in the hall, and look in the warehouse for “That same blouse with one button on the side and pink”, if asked, and stand at the checkout, and stand at the fitting room, hanging things that someone was not approached, back to the hall.
How to get a job in one of the chain stores
I got to work in the easiest way. I walked around the shopping center and saw that the store needed a consultant, with a flexible schedule, no work experience, a student. In general, getting a job like this is easy, so students go there, work for a couple of months and leave.
How is the interview and internship
I was interviewed with three others. I think among us they were looking for sociable people, with leadership qualities and active.
I went through an interview and met with a senior manager. She began to say typical phrases, such as: "We are a team"; "You are part of one big family"; and so on. It was very funny.
I was told that my salary would be about twenty thousand, but first you need to complete an internship, and if you pass it, welcome to our team. They said that I would be the most ordinary consultant, but that you can get a promotion if you are purposeful and ambitious. Everything as usual.
The senior manager told me that I would stand at the checkout, and advise and lay things out, like everyone else. Tell me what they have flexible schedule and how easy it is to combine work with study. I chose a hell of a schedule: 5/2. I did not mind, then I was still an active person.
Workflow in a clothing store
If the door of the store says “Open from 9 to 9”, then the employee comes there at 7 am and leaves at 11 pm. First you need new product hang up, see what is missing, remove things with defects. In the evening, you need to check everything again, tidy up and close the store.
Then the store opens, and you either stand at the cash register, or help people find “that very blouse ...”, or relax.
By the way, if you approach a consultant and say that you saw “that same blouse ...” in the catalog, and he answers you that it is not in this store, this does not mean that it is not there, it means that he is so tired that he you don't feel like going to the warehouse and looking for what you want.
Rest is rare, but we have an hour a day in which we do it. The rest of the time you can't. You constantly need to make sure that things hang in their places, the client is served, and things are not stolen.
About what you don't know
Now I’ll tell you one unpleasant truth: if you take an item from a stand that says “SALE” in bright letters, you should know that this item was lying on the floor at least 10 times, and no one was in a hurry to remove it. Yes, it's embarrassing, but true. When I worked there, I didn’t bother with hygiene at all. If I dropped something, it's okay, especially since people dropped it before me, people measured it with skin diseases. Therefore, I advise you to always wash the item after purchase.
Of course, as in every store, we had thefts, and often. These are mainly schoolchildren who steal hats or small accessories worth up to 500 rubles. Someone says: “I forgot / forgot to pay”, someone: “Forgive me, I won’t do it again”, and someone refuses to the last. Experienced salesmen do not look at all their tears, you have to lead them to security and call their parents. Of course, you don't want to be scolded, but it's a duty.
About the team and career growth in the network
At work, I met the most different people: Basically, of course, there are students, 19-20 years old, but there was a woman of 35 years old with me on the shift. After work, we sometimes met all together and went somewhere to drink.
Everyone says: “This job is temporary until I find a normal one,” but in fact they are ashamed of the fact that they are not working in their profession, but as a consultant. And someone directly says: "I came here to achieve unknown heights."
It's really possible to achieve something, starting with a consultant - first you become a senior manager, he has less work, and then, like, the head of a separate point.
Getting promoted is quite easy if you work hard and tirelessly. I think that in a year or two you can already become a senior manager, and in 3-4 years - already a head of a retail outlet. But would anyone want to run whole year or two and bring things to people? Only the most patient. To become a senior manager, you need to work hard, always be friendly, always take the initiative and be patient. To become the head of the point, I think you need to do something unthinkable, work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
Salary and social package in Inditex stores
I earned 22 thousand on average, somewhere in Inditex they earn more, somewhere less. I know that in H&M and Bershka the salary is the same as ours. I think that in Zara the salary is bigger, it is considered more prestigious, and things are more expensive there.
But out of all the mass market clothes, I chose Inditex's Stradivarius because I like their clothes. In addition, we were given a discount card at Stradivarius itself, the discount was not the biggest (only 20 percent), but it was still nice.
Another pleasant moment: they made me a medical book and a work book.
The salary is completely “white”, I always received a bonus, it was about 5 thousand. Such more stores always fulfill the plan and they never have problems with attendance.
About the pros and cons of working for Inditex
At this employer, namely Inditex, which owns Stradivarius, where I worked, there are many pluses and a few minuses.
Among the advantages I can note:
- Really flexible schedule: you choose when and how much you work.
- Good salary and opportunity career development if be diligent and active.
- Employee discount card for clothes of the store where you work.
- Full social package. Still, Inditex is a large and responsible company.
- Good team. All my colleagues were pleasant to talk to, young guys.
Of the minuses:
- Work with people. Working for a very long time in positions such as a consultant or a cashier, you begin to hate people for how sloppy and irritable they are.
- Too long work day. If you choose your shift - the whole day, then you leave two hours later and arrive two hours earlier.
- A huge minus - if you quit on your own, or you were fired, then they won’t take you back, either to the store where you worked or to any other Inditex store. That is why so many students work there for 3-5 months and never come back.
- All day on your feet. Again, if you pick up a lot of shifts, as I did, then you get wildly tired.
If you want to work for Stradivarius, Zara, Pull & Bear or Bershka
In general, I would still get a job in this position, in the place of the applicant.
- First, you gain experience, invaluable experience.
- Secondly, you get new and interesting acquaintances.
- Thirdly, you get a full social package and good management.
And most importantly, you get paid for your work.
They didn’t tell me a lot at the interview, for example, that I would have to work more than stated, but still, I don’t regret that I worked there. Too bad I can't go back.
Everyone who wants to get a job in Stradivarius, like me, either in Bershka, or in Zara or somewhere else - do not be afraid! You will get a good experience of working in a team, you will see a lot of fun things. But you will work enough, and if you work hard and well, you will also get a promotion.
P.S. Have you worked in one of the clothing stores of the Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius networks? Leave your feedback about the employer, this will help other job seekers!
