Inditex: The myth of near-shoring

Research evidence excerpt

Inditex: The myth of near-shoring

22 July 2026

William Woods

+44 20 7676 6806

European General Retail william.woods@bernsteinsg.com

Richard TrainorIndustria de Diseno Textil SA

+44 20 7762 1050

Rating richard.trainor@bernsteinsg.com

Outperform Alice Buckley

+44 20 7676 6739

Price Target alice.buckley@bernsteinsg.com

ITX.SM 60.00 EUR Rhea Gudiwala

+44 20 7676 7293

rhea.gudiwala@bernsteinsg.com

Specialist Sales

Alix Turner

+44 20 7762 4044Inditex: The myth of near-shoring alix.turner@bernsteinsg.com

Everyone thinks Zara’s moat is near-shoring. It is not. This is not true on two counts - Close Date 20 Jul 2026

firstly, the moat is more cultural, organizational and process-driven (note here); secondly, our

ITX.SM Close Price (EUR) 53.44

proprietary analysis reveals that near-shore is a myth with >50% production (by SKU count)

Price Target (EUR) 60.00

being produced in far-shore locations. Notably, it’s not even just basics that are far-shored.

Upside/(Downside) 12%

Myth 1: Inditex mostly produces near-shore. 58% products on their website recently 52-Week Range 58.28/40.34

were made in far-shore locations with key locations China (29%) and Bangladesh (13%). EDME 1,596.25

Near-shore production only represented 42%, with key locations Morocco (16%) and Turkey FYE Jan

(13%). Inditex’s moat has nothing to do with production locations. Due to their use of air Div Yield 2.2%

freight, they can be agnostic; the difference is 8 hours or so. The moat is cultural (focused on Market Cap (EUR) (M) 166,367

copying trends rather than taking a view on fashion) and organisational (e.g. no collections). EV (EUR) (M) 161,611

Performance YTD 1M 6M 12M

Myth 2: Near-shore is for more fashion-forward, expensive items. Far-shore is not just Absolute (%) (5.3) (4.2) (3.8) 28.4

for cheap basics.