introspection in the Spanish fashion Bangladesh After Death Factory

  Homegrown Spanish fashion brands such as Zara and Mango have some success in Spain in the middle of his agonizing depression. But now a number of fatal accidents in sewing factories in foreign countries cause a bit of introspection about the cost of looking good, especially at a time when clean textile industry of Spain was dug through imports and outsourcing, while the Spanish consumer to deplete increasingly to new afford clothes.

In the rubble of the collapsed building Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where more than 1,100 workers in the garment industry, died last month, investigators found orders or clothing based in Barcelona Mango MNG Holding SL and Spanish chain El Corte Ingles SA. A Spaniard, David Mayor, whose location is unknown, listed in the register of the company as general manager of a factory Rana Plaza. Inditex SA, ITX.MC -1.83% owner of the Zara brand and the largest fashion retailers in the world, was a customer of the factory near Dhaka Export Smart, where seven people died in a fire in January.

Accidents caused investigate the cost of "fast fashion", a design trend of Spanish labels that run constantly, started to keep collections new styles on the shelves. This rapid turnaround strategy has helped Inditex to open a shop in a garage in 1960 to launch a global force, whose founder, Amancio Ortega, is today one of the richest men in the world.

Some Spanish union leaders say that the success of the Spanish style has done more for the shareholders of foreign companies and consumers and workers at home or abroad. "It's very simple: they attracted a large number of jobs to low-wage countries with lower labor costs and standards now you see accidents as a result," Montserrat López García de la Torre said, international relations secretary of the General Union of Workers of Spain.

The other side of the coin, it says, is five years economic crisis in Spain and the unemployment rate of 27%. The decline of the textile and clothing industry, where employment fell from 136,000 to 243,000 in 2004, followed by the larger problems of the country, Asian imports began to displace local production. From 2002 to 2011, about 7,000 textile companies or Spanish clothes, about 43% of the total population, have closed their doors, found a study of EAE Business School in Spain.

The worldwide success of fashion companies flagship Spain is a paradox. In the last ten years, Inditex global sales of almost € 16000000000 (20650000000 dollars) quadrupled in 2012. Meanwhile, the recession at home, the per capita expenditure on clothing Spaniards fell by 22% between 2007 and 2011, found the study of EAE Business School.

Some analysts argue that the fast-fashion purveyor should be the last people responsible for the economic malaise Spain or discomfort in the local textile industry. "Fast fashion is too close to produce highly dependent at home," said Angel Asensio, Head of the Spanish Association of clothing manufacturers. The idea, he said, is the time it takes to get the goods from the factory to reduce design centers, and distribution centers in Spain.

Inditex, for example, said that almost half of the total production from neighboring countries such as Spain and Portugal and Morocco comes. The number of employees increased by Inditex in Spain by 46% to 39,098 in the seven years to 2011, although most jobs in retail, logistics or administration, with only about 1,100 positions in plants of the company.

Inditex has 6,500 Spanish suppliers who have booked revenues of € 3 billion for the fashion giant last year.
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About 6% of Inditex products from Bangladesh, a proportion that has not changed in recent years, the company said. About 4% of purchases in 2011 mango came from Bangladesh, compared to 0.64% in 2007, the company reported. Bangladesh produced "very simple products, low-cost apparel company in the world", not fast fashion, said Asensio.

Maybe. But Mahmudul Islam, Commercial Counsellor at the Embassy of Bangladesh in Madrid, said the Bangladesh is proud of the fact that it moves, the value chain and turning to more sophisticated denim and knitted products including jeans style for Trafaluc based online youth Zara.

Plant security experts say companies should weigh sensitive than can lead the fast mode between the safe production and produce quickly.

"You can not have the corporate responsibility department, saying that the system additional hours must be kept at a reasonable level and the purchasing department demanding 10,000 Blouses delivered roses in a week," Macarena Gross said, He directs the Corporate Social Responsibility for Hoss Intropia, a small Spanish label.

Ms. Gross said she had to use videos and photos to the conditions in India, where the company makes life and work clothes, to educate the company's offices in Madrid. "You like a little fashion company on the grounds, where in fact garments are sewn known would be thrilled," she said.

Inditex said it almost doubled to nearly 2,000 the number of internal and external staff on what he focuses the subjects 'sustainability' between 2010 and 2011. But this did not eliminate security vulnerabilities.

In case of fire Smart Export, Inditex, said a contractor working in the factory in Bangladesh was awarded to the workers where the exit was closed at the time of the fire. In a 2011 case, a contractor Inditex Brazil awarding work to another garment manufacturer that the Brazilian government held Bolivian immigrants in sweatshop conditions claimed. Inditex said he severed ties with entrepreneurs in both cases and ensured that workers were compensated.

The continuous monitoring of the entire production chain often means "to track down the Subcontractor Subcontractor Subcontractor," said José Luis Nueno, marketing professor at IESE Business School in Spain. Mr. Nueno Inditex given high marks, but added that the task is complicated when a business is the production volume of the Inditex clothing are nearly a billion last year.

Inditex, Mango and El Corte Ingles are a number of European traders who have a legally binding agreement to improve security in Bangladesh factories after the collapse Rana Plaza signed.

Some union leaders have asked the company to take further steps towards transparency, along the lines of manufacturers such as Nike and Adidas sneakers NKE -1.74% -1.45% ADS.XE disclosure name foreign suppliers. "There are still gaps in this report, the fashion company," said Jose Mesa, Secretary of the General Union of Workers. Inditex said government representatives and trade unions in the countries where it operates very well know the identity of their local producers.

To the economic recovery, there is the national mood, the Spaniards can still be cautious embraced the international success of Inditex's Ortega, who was the third place on the Forbes list of billionaires, with a net worth of $ 57,000,000,000th

When Mr. Ortega has € 20 million in the Catholic organization Caritas donated last October, violent conflict broke out on Twitter and Facebook FB -0.39% from the Spaniards, and others praised his generosity who wonder if the gift was tainted. Etxebarría novelist wrote on her Facebook page that she "almost exclusively concentrated Zara", but he stopped after reading the bad conditions in Asian factories, and "poor salary conditions of textile workers."

A sporty, Sergio Sauca was one of several celebrities who have jumped to the defense of Mr. Ortega. "What a pathetic country," he tweeted. "Amancio Ortega donated 20 million Caritas and criticized. Which envy. In other places, they build a monument to him."