SPAIN'S largest fashion retail firms have a grand total of 8,800 shops worldwide between them, latest figures show.
In fact, with a total of just under 12,000 stores, the 'big four' in Spain's textile industry, Mango, Cortefiel, Desigual and Inditex have three-quarters of their premises outside their country of origin.
Foreign branches account for 80% of their total sales, or just under €17.6 billion out of nearly €22.3bn last year.
Naturally, Inditex leads the field – its founder Amancio Ortega, from Ourense in Galicia is the wealthiest man in Europe and the third-richest worldwide – with 6,683 shops, of which 4,861 are based overseas in 87 countries.
The most international of Inditex's brands is the budget-but-smart label Zara which, including its children's line Zara Kids, has 1,633 shops abroad, followed by its cheaper 'sister' Bershka with 761.
Other Inditex labels in descending order with stores abroad are low-cost sporty casualwear chain Pull & Bear, budget young fashions brand Stradivarius, classy mid-range high-street chain Massimo Dutti, underwear label Oysho, upmarket interiors range Zara Home with 295 foreign outlets, and the relatively-new upper-end high-street brand Uterqüe (pictured above left), which at present has just 35 branches abroad.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com