Where do Zara source their materials from?
The company purchases raw fabric from suppliers in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. And those suppliers deliver within 5 days of orders being placed. Inbound logistics from suppliers are mostly by truck.
Most of Zara's clothes are manufactured at its sites in Spain or in nearby Portugal, Morocco and Turkey.
While some competitors outsource all production to Asia, Zara manufactures its most fashionable items – half of all its merchandise – at a dozen company-owned factories in Spain (particularly in Galicia), Portugal (northern part) and Turkey.
Zara‟s method of sourcing product is very different from the traditional methods used in the fashion industry because the company controls every part of the supply chain. Instead of using an outsider to design the clothes, the firm uses 300 in-house designers and relies heavily on store managers‟ input.
Zara used to employ Turkish sweatshops in Istanbul, where workers were forced to work without being paid. Modern slavery and child labor cases involving Zara in Brazilian factories were previously reported. Zara now cares more about its suppliers with higher transparency and worker empowerment initiatives.
Inditex owns factories in Spain and outsources production to factories in Portugal, Morocco and Turkey — considered costly labor markets, typically. The rest of its clothes are produced in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Brazil, among other countries.
- Ghana. Ghana is famous to save its tradition where oil, timber, and gold are the symbols of their ancient culture. ...
- Nigeria. ...
- India. ...
- Pakistan. ...
- China. ...
- Morocco. ...
- Malaysia.
Zara again scores “Not Good Enough” for labour. Half of its final stage of production is undertaken in Spain, a medium risk country for labour abuse, and the brand received a score of 51-60% in the Fashion Transparency Index.
Fast fashion success
Its cross-functional operations strategy, coupled with its vertically integrated supply chain, enables mass production under push control, leading to well-managed inventories, lower markdowns, higher profitability, and value creation for shareholders in the short and long term.
Quick response to Demand – Zara follows a pull model in their inventory and supply chain management. They create up to 1000 designs every month based on store sales and current trends.
Does Zara outsource production?
Instead of completely outsourcing its production overseas, Inditex does not outsource manufacturing completely. Most of its factories are built in Galicia, northern Spain (35% outsourcing). Aircraft transport is used once production is completed .
7 Reasons Your ZARA Clothes Look Cheap - YouTube
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Many more have even begun to boycott Zara specifically for its inappropriate association with forced labour camps in China and degrading working conditions in its Brazilian factories. Fast fashion brands such as Zara, expose their workers to extremely harsh working conditions around the world.
Zara stores have been accused of labor abuses in supply chain subjecting workers to degrading conditions. This prompted many consumers to boycott the brand's products. The brand has been linked to forced labor camps in China, and its workers in Brazil are also subjected to inadequate working conditions.
Zara makes about half their goods in Spain, in factories they own themselves. The rest of Zara's goods are made in cheap, long-lead factories in China and other Asian countries. Those goods are ordered in large quantities, months and months in advance.
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H&M.
The H&M logo used since 1999 | |
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Trade name | H&M |
Headquarters | Stockholm , Sweden |
Number of locations | 4,801 stores (2021) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Over the course of a year, Zara alone produces about 840 million garments for its 6,000 stores worldwide. One kilogram of fabric production emits about 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases, so the impact of Zara's yearly fabric production on greenhouse gas emissions is significant.
China is the largest textile producing and exporting country in the world. With its rapid growth over the last two decades, the Chinese textile industry has become one of the main pillars of the country's economy.
- Turkey. The textile industry of Turkey is around USD 12 billion and contributes over 10% to its total GDP. ...
- United Kingdom. ...
- Ghana. ...
- Nigeria. ...
- Morocco. ...
- China. ...
- Italy. ...
- United States of America.
China is currently the world's largest textile producer and exporter of both raw textiles and garments, accounting for over half of the global textile output every year. The United States is the leading producer and exporter of raw cotton, while also being the top importer of raw textiles and garments.
Where does Zara get their cotton?
Every single piece of clothing passes through one of Zara's four distribution centers across Spain. We visited the largest of all, located in Zara's main headquarters in the small town of Arteixo, in the north of Spain.
Zara gets a rating of 'Not Good Enough' from us. It has introduced some measures to make its business more sustainable, such as the Closing the Loop program, and publishes a detailed list of suppliers.
All the animal products, including fur and leather sold at Zara come exclusively from animal reared in livestock form and never from animal sacrificed for skin sale.
Portugal, Morocco, India and Bangladesh are the next biggest suppliers of the group, with over one hundred local partners. India and Bangladesh are also the ones with the largest workforce, after China, with over 275,000 workers in India and near half a million in Bangladesh.
Zara: An agile supply chain case study
Zara was one of the first retailers to offer stylish designs at wallet-friendly prices; a gap in the fashion market that companies had yet to perfect.
Zara's overarching strategy is achieving growth through diversification with vertical integrations. It adapts couture designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails clothes within two weeks of the original design first appearing on catwalks.
Garments labelled with 'Join Life' are produced using processes and raw materials that help reduce environmental impact. The company is now aiming that 50 percent of its products will meet the 'Join Life' standard by 2022. Its boxes, bags, hangers and alarms are reused and recycled at the end of their useful life.
Instead of completely outsourcing its production overseas, Inditex does not outsource manufacturing completely. Most of its factories are built in Galicia, northern Spain (35% outsourcing). Aircraft transport is used once production is completed .
Typically, Zara pre-commits to 50%- 60% of its production in advance of the season, whereas other clothing retailers commit to 80%- 90%. Thus Zara reserves mill capacities to ensure production facilities are available when needed. Zara hires young designers and trains them to make quick decisions.
The Zara factories are connected to the Cube by underground tunnels with high speed monorails (about 200 kilometers or 124 miles of rails) to move cut fabric to these factories for dyeing and assembly into clothing items. The monorail system then returns finished products to the Cube for shipment to stores.
How does Zara choose its suppliers?
Like I said, Zara is close to is suppliers due to inditex, Zara have in average 400 suppliers. Most of them are in Europe (70%) and the other are in Asia (30%). Zara choose to work with European supplier to reduce the risk of quality and improve the rapidity of the supply chain.
Key Differences
Zara divides the products sold within its stores into lower garments and upper garments, with price points being higher for the upper garments. Zara hopes to be perceived as a high-end retailer with affordable prices.
The company stated that it will only use cotton, linen and polyester that is "organic, more sustainable or recycled", as one of a number of sustainable targets for the next six years.
It uses eco-friendly materials, and reuses water and materials to minimise waste. With thoughtful design and a level of quality that guarantees its products for life, its pieces aren't just an investment for your wardrobe, they are an investment in women around the world.
The main issue with Zara's environmental policy is lack of transparency. They fail to disclose the number of resources that go into their production. This makes it difficult to determine how impactful their sustainability goals can truly be.