Madrid (EFE).- Inditex celebrates one year tomorrow, Saturday, since this colossus of fashion began a new stage led by Marta Ortega as non-executive president, the woman who has managed to stamp her stamp in a short time after a quiet transition but with record results.
After the departure of Pablo Isla as president and CEO of the group in March 2022, Marta Ortega has managed in this short journey to forget her role as the daughter of the founder, Amancio Ortega, to confer her own personality to the new future of the company .
“Marta Ortega is starting to grow, not Amancio’s daughter,” highlights Domingos Esteves, professor of the MBA Retail Executive at EAE Business School Madrid, who spoke to EFE to explain some of the milestones of this last year at Inditex.
One of the virtues on a pragmatic level that Esteves attributes to the president of brands like Zara or Massimo Dutti is the ability to have managed to “minimize” the departure of a representative figure like Pablo Isla.
He believes that “surrounding himself” with a great team, from the family, the Board and the emerging figure of Óscar García Maceiras, at the time the group’s top executive, has been key in this successful start of government.
“She has not been alone”, highlights the professor and member of the Committee of Experts of the Spanish Retail Association (AER) about Marta Ortega in relation to the spectacular results that the company has obtained in the last year, with sales that reached 32,600 million euros (17.5% more than in 2021).
The weight of the former Inditex, Isla, in these record results is difficult to quantify. The collections are determined from one year to the next, so Isla’s hand has come into play, regardless of the strategic plan that he designed.
But it is no less true that Isla did not foresee the difficulties encountered for the sector by a war, the one in Ukraine, nor the unstoppable inflationary scenario. However, Ortega’s new team and his new managers overcame these unforeseen events, for a net profit in the last year of 4,130 million, 27% more.
Marta Ortega, another talent
Marta Ortega has already shown another mood. She was at the presentation of the latest results at the Arteixo (La Coruña) headquarters, she came to greet the accredited media and has already offered the first interview to an economic medium, in this British case, the Financial Times.
“My energy is in the product. It is the soul of this company and where I can offer the most value. I am aware of financial issues, but I have a very experienced team focused on them,” the president of the fashion giant told the aforementioned media.
His public presence is already stronger than that of his father (87 years old). Marta Ortega (39 years old) is more visible. She talks a lot about the product, about improving quality, about the designs, about the shopping experience, and about sustainability.
Ortega, beyond the numbers, has already made his intentions clear: he wants to deliver quality at an affordable price within the model of “democratic fashion” that is made not only for the rich.
“This is his suit: to facilitate popular access to the best collections with the best values”, concludes Professor Esteves, or what is the same, to try to bring haute couture closer to the street, away from the so-called “fast fashion”. .
Marta Órtega is all of this plus technology and art at the service of fashion. In addition, she has reached an unprecedented labor agreement with the workers for salary increases that have set the bar very high in that field for her competitors.
“The focus on people”, proclaimed Marta Ortega in her first speech in front of the group.
We must not forget that Inditex is a multinational that sells its products in 213 countries and employs 165,000 people.
Ahead, tasks such as recovering the capitalization of 100,000 million that it reached in the fall of 2021, increasing its presence in the United States and achieving prestigious collaborations in that country are part of the short-term challenges for the new Inditex dressed as Marta. Ortega.