Complete Chain Control Until Customer Touch

"In 1975, with the opening of the first Zara store in La Coruña, a vertical integration was completed that represented a phenomenon hitherto unknown in the European fashion industry."

"Inditex is the only company, among the big ones in the apparel sector, that is fully vertical; GAP and H&M, for example, design and sell, but do not manufacture, and Benetton designs and manufactures, but their sales outlets are franchised."

"To get started, they set up in a modest workshop and started manufacturing the famous quilted robes for women, which sold much better than expected. Reinvesting most of the profits, Amancio Ortega gave a major boost to his workshop and dedicated himself to manufacturing clothes that he sold to third parties, and even managed to export part of the production. Ten years later, his company had more than five hundred workers, had absorbed the supply and distribution operations, and had hired a team of designers. It was ready to make a foray into the only link in the chain that remained to be covered: retail distribution."

"The owners of La Maja paid close attention to the suggestions of the youngest of the Ortega's, who proposed to take charge of the clothing manufacture using fabrics from the store and manual labor provided by Primitiva, the wife of his brother Antonio, who was a seamstress. The results were positive and at that precise moment Amancio, who was not willing to give away the added value of his initiatives, quit his job as a clerk to dedicate himself to product manufacturing. In ten years of experience, he had made contacts with Catalan fabric manufacturers, which gave him access to wholesale prices, and had accumulated an interesting portfolio of his own clients."