Inditex will close the 82 Uterqüe stores throughout February

Inditex will foreseeably close the 82 stores of the Uterqüe brand, 27 of them in Spain, throughout the month of February, which will result in the relocation of its 200 employees to other brands of the group and in other areas of activity, according to reported to Europa Press in company sources.

The intention of the group, which has already begun negotiations with union representatives, is to prioritize the integration of Uterqüe employees in Massimo Dutti stores for the synergies that the union of both brands entails, within the strategy of anticipation and digital transformation.

From the company they have specified that the merger of Uterqüe, a brand that was born in 2008, and Massimo Dutti will not lead to layoffs, having already integrated the purchasing and design teams. The union of both brands was contemplated within the group’s 2020-2022 plan, which foresees an investment of 1,000 million to reinforce the commitment to ‘online’ and 1,700 million for technologically integrated stores.

From CC.OO. They have highlighted that “obviously” the objective is to maintain employment, although they have stated that “this process is different from those that were carried out previously, since in this case there is a merger where the entire Uterque workforce must be relocated and that obviously there is no could affect the working conditions of Massimo Dutti’s staff”.

At the end of last year, Inditex integrated the Uterqüe companies into the Massimo Dutti Group through a merger by absorption after the company founded by Amancio Ortega announced that the entire range of Uterqüe products would become available on the website and in stores selected from Massimo Dutti, with which it will no longer be marketed in its own store.

In this way, Inditex seeks to make the most of the penetration and projection that Massimo Dutti, with 655 stores in the world, has been in international markets such as the United States, Canada, Mexico or Turkey for years.

In this way, the firm continues the strategy initiated with Zara Home and Zara, where, with “very good results”, Synergies between brands are maximized.

Now, the company is immersed in analyzing how the presence of Uterqüe in Massimo Dutti will materialize, both on the website and in the physical format, in selected stores.