Zara, a Spanish fashion apparel brand keen on exploring opportunities to enter India, has held talks with Future group and Shopper’s Stop, sources said.
KOLKATA: Zara, a Spanish fashion apparel brand keen on exploring opportunities to enter India, has held talks with Future group and Shopper’s Stop, sources said.
While it is being said that Shopper’s Stop had been in talks with Zara before looking at a possible tie-up with Macy’s, the Future Group, it is learnt, is not keen on working on the import model proposed by Zara.
Zara officials did not respond to an e-mailed queries. A Future Group spokersperson, told DNA Money: “We have not had any contact with Zara for more than a year.”
The buzz is that Zara is awaiting foreign direct investment clarity. But others still say that the fashion turnaround time for the European fashion major is at best three weeks, which demands an exceptionally efficient supply chain system “and a great product” to be in place.
In fact, worldwide, Zara is known for its marketing strategy of timely delivery of goods. A Zara executive is known to have said: “It’s all about speed. Celebrities may work for other brands but not for us.”
The Future Group spokersperson countered this, saying: “We have a one-week fashion turnaround.”
However, an industry analyst, noting the shortcomings of an industry just emerging, said: “In India, the lead time in the fashion apparel space is, at least, 3-4 months, and the retail industry here does not have that kind of supply chain management system in place yet. These things take time to evolve.”
Sources also said that Zara generally follows the import model and does not opt for local manufacturing with any of its partners globally.
This is because, according to sources, the company prefers to have control on both product and manufacturing.
It is not looking to divert from this business model in India too. The brand has a strong presence in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and several other places.
Zara is the flagship brand of the Spanish retail group Inditex SA. The brand’s marketing strategy and popularity do not really call for celebrity endorsements, said a marketing analyst. It seems, the clothes are slightly different from mainstream, but affordable.
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