Inditex Industria de Diseño Textil : Uterqüe opens its first ‘for&from’ store for the integration of disabled people

• The new store, with a floor area of 313m2, is located in The Style Outlets shopping centre in the district of San Sebastián de los
• Reyes (Madrid)
• The store will be managed in collaboration with the Prodis Foundation, a charity devoted to integrating people with disabilities into the workplace, and will employ 16 people
• The 'for&from' programme's reach now stands at 14 stores and 167 employees

Uterqüe is now part of Inditex's 'for&from' programme devoted to the integration of people with disabilities into the work place having opened its first store under this community scheme in The Style Outlets shopping centre in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid). With floor area of 313m2, the store will be managed as a charitable franchise by the Prodis Foundation, whose mission is to train and provide end-to-end support to people with differing abilities and their relatives. It will employ 16 people, 13 of whom have disabilities.

Following this new addition, Inditex has 14 'for&from' stores franchised under six of its brands (Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Uterqüe), as well as Tempe (the company that designs and sells the Group's footwear and accessories), together employing 167 people.

The new Uterqüe store will sell a carefully selected range of the brand's prior-season garments and accessories at reduced prices. It has been designed according to the brand's new store image, which draws its inspiration from the Mid-Century movement of the 1950s, in which the restrained and modern fittings blend in with the collections.

A community project dating back over 15 years

The 'for&from' project falls under the umbrella of Inditex's community investment strategy, which is articulated mainly around education, community well-being and humanitarian aid programmes, to which the company earmarked €48 million in 2017. It was created in 2002 with a Massimo Dutti store in Palafolls (Barcelona). Since then, all of the stores forming part of this initiative have been brought under a franchise scheme under which the outlets are managed by charities specialised in integrating people of differing abilities into the workplace. These charities include associations such as COGAMI in Galicia, Fundació El Molí d' En Puigvert and Moltacte in Catalonia, APSA in Alicante and, now, the Prodis Foundation.

The model is self-sufficient - following an initial donation by Inditex for the construction of the store, as well as the donation of last-season stock, the charities then keep the profits from the sale of garments. These profits are reinvested in full into the projects run by the network's partner charities. These stores act as an important stepping stone helping people with disabilities gain confidence to become integrated into the workplace.