Inditex Opens Stradivarius Store In Unirea Shopping Center

12.08.2011 By Cristina Roşca

Inditex, the largest player on the local fashion market, with overall turnover of around EUR100 million last year, ends the year with Friday’s opening of the Stradivarius store on the ground floor of Unirea Shopping Center, Inditex’s 21st store this year.

The company will finalize works on the facade of the Unirea Shopping Center, on which it has been working with the Adamescu family (owner of the shopping center) since mid-September, according to Mihai Cioltea, expansion manager of the Spanish retailer.
The investment exceeds EUR4 million.

Inditex, which is present on the Romanian market with seven of its eight brands, has opened 21 stores this year (Stradivarius included), accelerating its expansion rate.

At the end of this year, the Spanish retailer will have 72 stores, consolidating its position as the most extensive chain of fashion stores.

The retailer, present on the Romanian market with brands Zara, Zara Home, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, and Stradivarius, pursued expansion this year, when one of its biggest international rivals, Swedish group H&M, started to open stores in Romania.

H&M has, in turn, opened 11 stores - six in Bucharest and five outside Bucharest. At the opening of the first Romanian store, Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M, said Romania was the first market where the company would open so many stores in its first year.

The largest fashion retailers on the Romanian market - Inditex, H&M, C&A, and New Yorker together opened around 50 stores in 2011.

One of the reasons they continue to invest is the fact that the local market will continue to see strong growth over the next few years, from EUR1.9 billion last year to over EUR4 billion in 2020, according to estimates of Euromonitor analysts.

Although the economy was hurt by the financial crisis and consumption started on a downward path, the years 2009 and 2010 were not years of crisis for Spanish group Inditex, which continued to open stores, 14 in each of the last two years, with turnovers up from around EUR45 million - the figure doesn't include the turnover of Stradivarius and of Zara Home, which are not public on the website of the Trade Registry - to EUR75 million in 2009 and around EUR100 million last year.

Moreover, this year, with 21 new stores, it could reach EUR150 million, according to ZF estimates. The new look of the Unirea store facade is set to be similar with the sides that feature the Zara and Bershka logos. The Stradivarius logo - the G clef - is set to feature on the new facade.

(English version by Daniela Stoican)