Zara crosses 100-million dollar sales mark in India

Spanish fashion brand Zara has become the first apparel brand to cross the 100 million dollars (over Rs 600 crores) in sales. The brand which has been doing extremely well since its launch in India had brand ventured into the country five years back with a joint venture with Tata Group arm Trent.

Zara owned by Inditex reported 24 percent growth in sales for the year ended March 2015 at Rs 721 crores, Trent said in its annual report released recently. In FY13-14, it had sales worth Rs 580 crores. However, the rise in sales growth has almost narrowed to half from 43 percent it posted for the year ago period. Trent would now look at expanding footprint of the Zara brand in India.

The label is now available through 16 stores with average sales per store of about Rs 45 crores a year, much higher compared to top apparel brands such as Louis Philippe, Levi's and Marks & Spencer, and even slightly higher than department store chains Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle. Its closest rivals in India Benetton (wholesale) and Levi's had posted around Rs 599 crores each in sales a year ago and haven't declared their FY14-15 numbers yet.

Zara continues to replicate the same model that has worked for it globally, that is: creating affordable, copied versions of the latest in trend or designer-wear and making them available to shoppers at a faster pace. Inditex not only owns Zara, but it also takes care of every bit of operations, from design to distribution and a large chunk of manufacturing. According to experts, even before the brand entered the country in 2010, its online sales from India were highest in the world.