Spain's Mango Clothing Chain Ramps Up Global Expansion

After a slowdown sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mango has in recent months inaugurated several large stores around the globe. Angela Weiss / AFP/File
After a slowdown sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mango has in recent months inaugurated several large stores around the globe. Angela Weiss / AFP/File
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Spain's Mango Clothing Chain Ramps Up Global Expansion

After a slowdown sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mango has in recent months inaugurated several large stores around the globe. Angela Weiss / AFP/File
After a slowdown sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mango has in recent months inaugurated several large stores around the globe. Angela Weiss / AFP/File

Spanish fashion retailer Mango, founded 40 years ago in Barcelona, is ramping its global expansion despite economic uncertainties that have shaken some other global mass-market apparel giants.
After a slowdown sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the family-owned company has in recent months inaugurated several large stores around the globe, said AFP.
They include a 400-square-meter (1,300-square-foot) space in Los Angeles, a similar-sized one in Manchester, England, and a flagship store in India's tech hub of Bengaluru.
Mango has opened a total of 115 stores over the past year, mainly in the United States where its sales outlets have tripled, the company's global retail director, Cesar de Vicente, said in an interview with AFP.
It has more than 2,700 stores in over 115 countries, compared to nearly 6,000 worldwide for Zara-owner Inditex, Spain's other clothing retail success story.
The expansion has helped boost turnover with Mango expecting to post over three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in sales in 2023 -- a record -- when it announces its yearly results on Monday, De Vicente told AFP as he stood in front of prototypes of new garments at the company's sprawling headquarters in a Barcelona suburb.
It is at this building -- dubbed the "campus" -- that the textile group which employs 500 stylists designs and tests its future collections.
The company sells nearly 160 million items of clothing and accessories a year.
Star ambassadors
Mango traces its origins to 1984 when a young man of Turkish origin, Isak Andic, opened his first shop on the Paseo de Gracia, Barcelona's famous shopping street, with the help of his older brother Nahman which was hugely successful.
Spain had just emerged from a decades-long dictatorship which ended with the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975 and consumers were hungry for more modern clothes.
"He saw that we needed color, style," said De Vicente.
Andic quickly opened dozens of more stores in Spain and then abroad, starting in neighboring Portugal and France, all under the name Mango.
To help boost sales the company has hired big stars such as British model Kate Moss, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, and French footballer Antoine Griezmann for its marketing campaigns.
Like its main domestic rival Inditex, the world's biggest fashion retailer whose other store brands include Bershka and Pull&Bear, Mango strives to quickly adjust its production to the latest fashion trends while offering affordable prices.
The two groups "have many similarities" because they "developed at the same time" but there are some significant differences, said Marcel Planellas, a strategy professor at Barcelona business school Esade.
Mango has just a single brand and it does not own any factory, outsourcing its production mainly to lower-cost Türkiye and Asia, he added.
500 new stores
The company, which employs some 14,000 people and aims to differentiate itself from low-cost brands such as Shein and Primark by accelerating its move upmarket, will present its new strategic plan on Monday along with its annual results.
It is expected to confirm its international ambitions, with 500 new stores planned by 2026.
These openings will mostly take place in the United States, the UK and France, the group's second-largest market after Spain, said De Vicente.
This dynamism contrasts with the sluggishness seen elsewhere in the sector in Europe where US retailer Gap has closed shops and French retail clothing company Camaieu, which made and sold its own collections of women's fashion, closed down at the end of 2022.
Mango enjoys a "solid situation" unlike some of its competitors, said Planellas, who predicts the company will list on the stock market in the coming years as Inditex did in 2001.



Hermes 2Q Sales Rise 13% on Continued Appetite for High-End Luxury

People stand with Hermes shopping bags as they wait at a traffic light in Tsim Sha Tsui, a bustling shopping hotspot, in Hong Kong, China December 5, 2023. (Reuters)
People stand with Hermes shopping bags as they wait at a traffic light in Tsim Sha Tsui, a bustling shopping hotspot, in Hong Kong, China December 5, 2023. (Reuters)
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Hermes 2Q Sales Rise 13% on Continued Appetite for High-End Luxury

People stand with Hermes shopping bags as they wait at a traffic light in Tsim Sha Tsui, a bustling shopping hotspot, in Hong Kong, China December 5, 2023. (Reuters)
People stand with Hermes shopping bags as they wait at a traffic light in Tsim Sha Tsui, a bustling shopping hotspot, in Hong Kong, China December 5, 2023. (Reuters)

Birkin-bag maker Hermes reported a 13% rise in second-quarter sales on Thursday, demonstrating the continued appetite from wealthy shoppers for its luxury handbags, even as less affluent consumers pull back.

Sales at the French luxury group grew to 3.7 billion euros ($4.02 billion), a 13% organic sales rise that strips out currency fluctuations. The figure was in line with analyst expectations, according to a Visible Alpha consensus.

Operating profit for the first half was 3.1 billion euros, compared to a forecast from consensus provider Visible Alpha for 3.2 billion.

One of the most steady performers in the luxury goods sector -- even as economic conditions worsen -- the French group's results stand out after a string of disappointing earnings updates from peers which have raised investor concern about uncertain prospects for the sector in the coming months.

Hermes' famously classic designs and tight management of production and stock have helped reinforce the label's aura of exclusivity, and CEO Axel Dumas told reporters the company had seen "no big interruption in trends".

However, he said Hermes was seeing slightly less traffic with aspirational clients, which was impacting higher volume products like fashion accessories.