Zara Owner’s Lesson for Others Is Keep Supplies Close to Home (2024)

Pablo Isla is chairman of Inditex, the biggest fast fashion retailer in the world by market value, and he has a lesson for companies across the world: Proximity sourcing works and can help weather a pandemic.

In a year that saw global supply chains punished as factories came to standstill, ports were hit by bottlenecks and stores were shut for weeks, the Spanish owner of the Zara clothing brand saw its inventories drop by an impressive 9%. Other fashion retailers, such as H&M and Gap, have seen increases in inventory, and leading sportswear firms such as Adidas and Nike also struggled during the year. Many had to adjust their supply-chain strategies.