Store takeover strategy Inditex, accelerated in the last year and which will lead to a reduction of its physical network from 1,000 to 1,200 points of sale, affecting almost all its main markets. In varying degrees, but out of the 20 countries where it has a greater physical presence, only in two has the number of stores increased at the end of 2020 compared to the previous one.
Saudi Arabia and Romania They were the two rare avis. The Saudi country gained weight in the group to become the tenth largest market. It has 186 stores there after adding five new stores last year, being the country that recorded the highest growth.
These are, for example, 77 more than 10 years ago, a period in which it increased consecutively to 183 at the end of 2017. Then it decreased in the next two years by one unit each, in order to increases in 2020 to 186, its highest level. Of this amount, 47 are zara, 32 at Bershka, 19 at Pull & Bear and 18 at Oysho, including in the last store opened at Dammam last year. There Inditex has as franchisee the local group Alhokair.
The other case was Romania, where the Inditex network won three stores to bring the total to 139, a new record. There, the growth has been constant in the last 10 years, except for 2014, when it maintained the number of units compared to the previous year.
During that period, Inditex almost tripled its presence on Romanian soil and made this market the twelfth largest in terms of number of stores. In 2020 it surpassed Japan, where the balance was 12 net closures. There, Inditex follows a strategy similar to the one it has undertaken in China in recent months, closing its smaller format stores, such as Stradivarius or Pull & Bear, to offer them only online.
Apart from Saudi Arabia and Romania, three other countries have not undergone any changes in their physical network of stores: USA, where Inditex maintains 99; Israel, with 79, and Ukraine, with 72.
Already on the closing side, the one who took the palm was China. That closure of all Bershka, Pull & Bear and Stradivarius stores, which began in January, led to the closure of a total of 221 to 388. So much so that it was not surpassed only by Russia, which has already happened in closing .in the third quarter, but also of Mexico, relegating to the fourth position. Something that not long ago seemed inconceivable. Just three years ago, Inditex peaked at 659 units in the market, which had a sharp increase since 2010.
Stores that included China and Spain accounted for 41% of the total that year.
After 10 years, this proportion is now 26.3%. In the domestic market, the number of net closures in the last year was 169, reaching 1,411 stores, the lowest level since 2004.
Although the balance between opening and closing was negative, and for the first time the evolution of the commercial area, Inditex continued to open stores in cities such as Paris, Moscow, Mexico City, Amsterdam and also Spanish, such as a new Uterqüe in Malaga and Zara expanded and renovated on Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona.