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.



Zara Owner Inditex Meets Quarterly Sales Forecast but Recent Sales Slow

Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. (Reuters)
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Zara Owner Inditex Meets Quarterly Sales Forecast but Recent Sales Slow

Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Shoppers walk past a Zara clothes store, part of the Spanish group Inditex, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, December 13, 2022. (Reuters)

Zara owner Inditex on Wednesday reported sales for its fourth quarter ending January 31 in line with analysts' expectations, sealing another year of strong growth for the world's biggest listed fast-fashion retailer.
Inditex's first quarter started more slowly, though, with sales up just 4% in currency-neutral terms over the February 1 to March 10 period, compared to 11% growth a year ago, Reuters said.
Sales grew 10.5% in currency-neutral terms, to 38.6 billion euros ($42.07 billion) for the year, Inditex said, as fourth-quarter sales came in at 11.2 billion euros.
"The main concern will be a softer exit rate of 4%" compared to analysts' forecast of 8.8% growth for the first quarter, Bernstein analyst William Woods said. "This requires a significant acceleration in the rest of the quarter," Woods said, noting Inditex said sales in its most recent week were up 7%.
Zara's growth may have been boosted recently by consumers shifting from more high-end brands to Zara during the cost-of-living crisis, and that trading down might not happen to the same extent in the coming years, said Morningstar analyst Jelena Sokolova.
In comments on its 2025 outlook, Inditex said it had a "strong commitment to profitable growth" after net profit for 2024 grew 9% to 5.9 billion euros.
"The excellent sales and profit figures show the solidity of the Inditex Group's profitable growth," Chief Executive Officer Oscar Garcia Maceiras said in a statement.
Inditex, which also owns Bershka, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, and Oysho brands, said it would hike its dividend by 9% to 1.68 euros per share.
Inditex's consistent growth, outpacing rivals, such as H&M, has driven a strong run in its share price, which is now more than double of where it was three years ago, but the stock has struggled to gain further ground since September last year.
Inditex plans capital spending of 1.8 billion euros this year, unchanged from 2024, as it invests in store refurbishments, technology and improving its online platforms.
After investments in logistics and expanding warehouses, Inditex said a second distribution center in its logistics hub of Zaragoza will open this summer.
The retailer, which operates in 214 markets around the world, plans to open its first stores in Iraq this year. Its brand aimed at younger shoppers, Bershka, will launch in Sweden, and sportswear and loungewear brand Oysho is set to open for the first time in the Netherlands and Germany.