After crisis, Spain textiles sector dons new colours
MADRID: Spain’s textile sector, f lush with the glittering success of brands such as Zara, is beginning to recover from a crisis sparked by cut- throat competition from Asia that destroyed a third of its firms in less than a decade.
Inditex, owner of a range of brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti and Bershka, easily beat its closest rival, Sweden’s H& M, in terms of earnings last year, booking a bottom-line net profit of over three billion euros.
Thanks to the success of Inditex’s ‘ fast- fashion’ brands, along with that of two other major Spanish high street clothing retailers, Mango and Desigual, Spain is a key player in the global fashion sector.
Clothing and textiles account for nearly three per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. And in terms of sector sales, Spain is Europe’s fifthlargest producer behind Italy, Germany, Britain and France, according to Spanish textile association Texfor.
Texfor calculates that the number of Spanish suppliers of fabric, fibres and accessories such as buttons has plunged by about a third since 2008.
The Spanish sector, like its counterparts in other western countries, has been hit by fierce competition from Asia, as well as a slump in demand due to the global economic downturn.
Spanish textile firms were slow to innovate and adapt to the increasingly fast- changing demands of the fashion industry, said Antonio Valdivia, professor in strategy and marketing at the EAE Business School. — AFP