The Spanish fashion group Inditex has opened its first store in Portugal with the “for&from” concept. It is located at the Freeport Lisboa Fashion Outlet in the town of Alcochete, near Lisbon.
The concept aims to integrate people with different disabilities into society and working life. To achieve this, the For&from branches want to create a favorable environment for employees with disabilities. Inditex supports the construction and equipment of the stores through a donation, but does not operate the stores itself, but rather in cooperation with non-profit organizations. The business is self-sustaining through sales, and the profits are reinvested in the projects of the network’s various partner organizations. There are now a total of 16 for&from branches, 14 in Spain, one in Italy and now the first in Portugal.
The new store in Portugal currently employs 17 people with various types of physical, sensory and intellectual disabilities. The store is operated by the VilacomVida association, a non-profit association whose mission is to create the conditions so that young people with disabilities, especially those with intellectual disabilities, can improve their career prospects and find their place in the community. The store has an area of more than 150 square meters and sells Zara Home’s pre-season collections.
The for&from concept was born in 2002 when Massimo Dutti opened the platform’s first store in Palafolls (Barcelona). Today, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Tempe Inditex are also part of the project. In 2019, for&from opened its first international store in Italy, managed by Fondazione Cometa. To date, more than 750 jobs have been created and eight million euros in profits have been generated for the charities that run the stores, the company said in a press release.
At the beginning of 2023, Inditex also announced that it wanted to double the number of employees with disabilities across the entire group to 3,000 within two years. Marcos Ortega Mera, son of the company’s founder Amancio Ortega, is also mentally disabled.