About one-half of the fabric purchased was “gray”(undyed) to facilitate in-season updating with
maximum flexibility. Much of this volume was funneled through Comditel, a 100%-owned
subsidiary of Inditex, that dealt with more than 200 external suppliers of fabric and other raw
materials. Comditel managed the dyeing, patterning, and finishing of gray fabric for all of Inditex’s
chains, not just Zara, and supplied finished fabric to external as well as in-house manufacturers. This
process, reminiscent of Benetton’s, meant that it took only one week to finish fabric.