Inditex SA recently announced a revamp of its top management team by promoting Marta Ortega—the daughter of Inditex’s founder Amancio Ortega—to new chair of the company. Inditex is the largest leading company in Spain’s Ibex 35, with a market value of €87 billion and owner of fashion brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Oysho, Bershka, Lefties and Uterqüe.
The reorganization marks the departure of Executive Chairman Pablo Isla, who spurred Inditex’s expansion phase for more than a decade, boosting the company’s market value, promoting a strong strategy in logistics and overseeing the business’s digital transformation, which helped the company get through the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. At a news conference, Isla said that it was the right time for the change due to the company’s strong position, with sales in the second quarter climbing above 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Main changes
Marta Ortega will become a non-executive chairperson, while the executive side of the business will be run by Óscar García Maceiras, who joined Inditex last March as general secretary and secretary of the board. With García Maceiras being appointed as CEO, the company will return to the dual leadership model that it had when Pablo Isla was CEO and Amancio Ortega was chairman.
García Maceiras has already announced his intention to ensure the continuity of the strategic milestones of the group, emphasizing the unique company’s model, which integrates physical stores and online business.
In fact, one of the main challenges that Marta Ortega faces is developing and securing the digital transformation that has already started. As stated in the group’s 2020-2022 plan, there is a capital investment of €1bn designated to boosting online capabilities and €1.7bn dedicated to upgrading the integrated store platform. Inditex’s sophisticated digital system already allows the company to bring together the inventories of its physical and online stores, and the plan is meant to continue with the development of this proprietary platform as the basis of the online operating system over which all of the integrated digital operations will run.
