Zara's U.S. Drive Slower than Expected

Reports suggest Zara's Spanish parent company, Inditex, may be slowing the fashion retailer's U.S. expansion plans.

Last year the company announced it was planning on adding more than 30 locations within the following two years (currently Zara has six New York locations). But at a recent London opening of an 11,000-square-foot store, an Inditex executive stated the company's priority focus was to grow its European business. The executive continued to say that U.S. was a unique and large market that necessitated its own plan, and another U.S. opening timetable was not offered.

Later, another spokesman for the company said the plans had never changed, and the 30-plus stores previously mentioned was a theoretical figure of what the U.S. market could support.