Inditex accelerates the process to close all its physical stores of the
Bershka
,
Pull & Bear
and
Stradivarius
brands
in China, within its strategy of absorption of stores that intensified during 2020 and that has the Asian giant, as well as Spain, as the main focuses .
This has been published this Thursday by the specialized portal WWD, which details that these closures will take place during this same month of January.
At the end of the third quarter of Inditex's fiscal year, the three brands added a total of 93 stores in mainland China: 37 from Pull & Bear, 34 from Bershka and 22 from Stradivarius.
The former also has five stores in Hong Kong and 4 in Taiwan.
Bershka also has six spread over both territories.
The closure of the stores of these three brands has been gradual in recent months, but will accelerate in the coming weeks.
When final, Bershka, Pull & Bear and Stradivarius will only sell their garments through their online stores.
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Last June, when it announced the results for the first quarter, Inditex announced its intention to accelerate the process of physical store takeovers to reduce the global network to a range of between 6,700 and 6,900 points of sale.
A measure that would more directly affect its two main markets, Spain and China.
For the first, it projected a fork of between 250 and 300 closures.
For all operations in Asia, it estimated between 340 and 400, but during the third quarter of the year China was the market that saw its network reduced the most.
As this newspaper published, the textile group has reduced its physical presence in that country by 88 stores between January 31 and October 31, 2020, with 61 closings only in the third quarter.
A contraction that has caused this, historically the second market of the group by number of stores, to have been surpassed by Russia.
Bershka store in Tokyo
Inditex has already advanced its plans with respect to
Pull & Bear, Stradivarius and Bershka
in that country by explaining its takeover plan.
Then he said that this plan "will allow chains such as Bershka, Pull & Bear and Stradivarius to definitely boost online sales in China and Japan," putting on the table the disappearance of physical points of sale in both countries in the coming months.
The pandemic has accelerated Inditex's digital transformation plans, for which it announced total investments of 2,700 million euros for the coming years.
Part of it was aimed at the closures of physical stores and the promotion of online channels to have more capacity in the face of the growth in demand caused by the pandemic.
Until the third quarter, Inditex had increased its online sales by 75% compared to the same period of the previous year, and launched the forecast of billing 6,500 million in this way when its fiscal year ends, this same month of January.
With them, it will exceed the target set for 2022 of 25% of its turnover coming from the online channel.