Spanish Galician textile industry going downhill

02 Oct '12

2 min read

The once glorious textile industry of Galicia, an autonomous province in northwest Spain, has been going downhill since the last decade.

In 1980s, Galician textile industry was able to overcome stiff competition from the Catalonian textile industry. It was because the Galician textile and apparel industry was supported by a strong political movement combined with even stronger entrepreneurial mindsets of the renowned and emerging fashion designers of the green, rainy region of Galicia.

The Galician textile industry earned its own name in terms of quality, prestige and designs. Large, medium and small-sized companies of that region were all manufacturing a range of clothing and knitwear products and the production value of the Galician textile industry touched one billion euros during that time.

There were big names in textiles and apparels like Adolfo Dominguez, Pili Carrera, Purification Garcia Toypes, Pernas, Roberto Verino, Kina Fernandez, Montono, Florentino, etc.

But today, some of those companies, which had around hundreds of employees working and breaking production records, have either closed, gone bankrupt or even shifted to some other businesses. And with the high number of shutdowns, the rate of unemployment has increased and the great couturiers of the region also have lost their financial status and control over their own internal business groups.

The fierce competition coming from China and the relocation of production units to other places, such as Morocco and the Maghreb, are considered to be the major reasons responsible for the downfall of the Galician textile industry.

However, despite all the closing downs and the poor state of the industry, there are two textile giants, including Inditex, which did not suffer from the crisis and are still growing rapidly worldwide.

Inditex, which owns the internationally popular clothing label Zara, is gradually turning the business into a phenomenal success with its smaller new and fast-growing brands that are getting noticed worldwide, even as the other retailers of Spain suffer an unprecedented slump. With eight brands and more than 5,200 shops in over 70 countries, the manufacturer currently employs around 100,000 people, with nearly 6,000 of them from Galicia.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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