Large clothing chains start the new year with dozens of closures

Pandemia has accelerated the transformation of fashion trade in a vertiginous way.A paradigm shift that, with rebound, will transform the urban landscape of the main cities next year and whose main spearhead is the multinational Inditex.

The textile giant, which has returned to the benefits in the third fiscal quarter after the coup of the Covid, has deepened the restructuring of the store network that began in 2012. Zara's owner Pisa the accelerator for next year and will closeMore than a hundred establishments in Spain, fourteen of which will disappear between January and March only in Catalonia - 17.7% of the total - according to sources in the sector.Specifically, the firm will throw the blind in four stores in Barcelona Ciudad, one in Vic, one in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, two in Viladecans, two in Sabadell, two in Salt and two others in Figueres, with 106 affected workers.Employees will have the possibility to relocate in nearby businesses or in the Chain Logistics Center, after the agreement sealed with the CC.OO.and UGT.

Inditex reducirá así el número de locales, pero ganará en superficie comercial, al concentrar su actividad en establecimientos más grandes y preparados para el auge del online, que se ha disparado desde marzo pero que no llega a compensar la caída de ventas que sufre toda la industria. La patronal Acotex, que agrupa a las principales cadenas del retail textil en España sin contar a las top –Inditex, H&M, Mango...–, cifra en un 40,5% el descenso acumulado de ventas los primeros 11 meses del año con respecto al 2019, incluyendo el canal físico y el digital.

Las grandes cadenas de ropa inician el nuevo año con decenas de cierres

“Inditex leads a transformation that will follow greater brands on 2021, we will see a avalanche of fashion store closures, especially medium and small size, with the consequent affectation in the templates, you have to start negotiating and”Trade union sources affirm.

Within its omnichannel plan

Inditex will close fourteen establishments in Catalonia in the first quarter of 2021

Los representantes de los trabajadores siguen muy de cerca a la segunda gran cadena de moda mundial, H&M, que en el 2021 prescindirá de 250 tiendas en todo el mundo (el 5% del total) y que ha paralizado su plan de expansión antes el descenso de facturación provocado por la crisis sanitaria y económica. Este 2020 ya cerró algunos establecimientos emblemáticos en España, donde ha perdido cuota de mercado, como el centro que tenía en el Maremagnum de Barcelona ante la falta de rentabilidad.

The unions also monitor Tendam's plans - Cortefiel, Springfield, Women’secret ...–, which aims to triple its online sale in the next three years.However, the tendam store model differs from that of another large chains: it refuses from the large flagship in prime areas and bets on a greater capillarity of establishments - it has more than 800 stores in 300 municipalities in Spain.

Estos movimientos tectónicos auguran un 2021 plagados de cierres de tiendas de ropa, auguran en el sector, dejando vacíos locales en importantes arterias y centros comerciales. “Habrá una reducción generalizada de tiendas, menos establecimientos, pero de más calidad”, confirma Rob Travers director de Retail EMEA de Cushman&Wakefield. El proceso está produciendo un cambio en el paisaje urbano. Donde antes dominaban el espacio las firmas de moda, ahora entran otros sectores aupados por los nuevos hábitos de consumo pospandemia. Es el caso del paseo de Gràcia, en Barcelona, donde tiendas de ropa y artículos personales de lujo como Lupo o Miu Miu ocupan ahora tiendas de mascarillas.

“We came from an era in which the protagonists of the great commercial axes, such as Plaza Catalunya, were fashion firms, and now this will change: we will see other services, such as technology, sportswear or Furniture in 'Prime' areas, ”adds Susana El Hombre, director of High Street of the CBRE consultancy. And it is that clothing stores have lost profitability. Physical establishments drag nine months without operating or operating with restrictions and at least 50% of viable fashion shops before pandemic have ceased to be under the current circumstances, warns David García, general director of the Catalan Fashion Catalan Cluster Modacc . It is estimated that textile trade in the physical channel will lose up to 35% of its annual business in Spain, from 18,000 million billing in 2019 12,500 million in 2020, while online will double the figure to 4.5 billion euros . Garcia emphasizes that physical stores are no longer so profitable and numerous chains close establishments while investing in digital campaigns. The unknown that opens, he holds, is what role the store will play from now on.

Urban transformation

Marks flee from secondary streets and fashion no longer dominates the main axes

Xavier Aguilar, Director of Commercial premises of Forcadell, states that in 2021 there will be a “sand watch” effect, with closures concentrated mainly in secondary streets, while transfers will be produced to the main axes, premises that are leaving free retailerssunk by the current economic crisis."Many brands are taking advantage of the decrease in circumstantial income to relocate, there are few net openings," he says, so saturation is not expected on the big axes.The less central streets will remain, yes, more depopulated by shops.