In a statement, the association’s president, Álvaro Viegas, said: “These are two anchor-stores that are essential to the dynamics of the downtown’s local commerce.”
The association claims no formal explanation has as yet been given for the closing of the shops, and ACRAL says it will be requesting a meeting with the administration of the Spanish Inditex group, which owns the brands.
However, Mr. Viegas added that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the ready-to-wear fashion chain’s decision “is a direct and predictable consequence of the proliferation of large outlets in the region, and in particular, of the most recently-authorised outlet, Mar Shopping, in Loulé.”
The president of the association said ACRAL “has been repeatedly warning about this possibility, for at least 18 months and unfortunately time has proven us right.”
Just last month clothing giant Zara has announced it was looking to sell off 16 of its stores across the Iberian Peninsula due to a rise in online sales, and two of those shops could be in Portugal.
While the group has not confirmed the exact location of the stores to close, according to Bloomberg, Inditex is looking to raise 400 million euros from the sale of the real estate, which it is offloading due to a rise in online sales.
The company is reportedly aiming to switch to a sale-and-leaseback operation, becoming tenants of the properties in question for a 20-year period, although the new buyers of the shops – 14 in Spain and two in Portugal – could see them vacated within five years.
Inditex’s revenues amounted to 11.7 billion euros during the first half of this year, fuelled by a rise in Internet sales, an area in which the clothing retailer intends to focus its efforts.
In the Algarve, in November 2017, the Designer Outlet and Mar Shopping Centre opened within weekends of each other, as part of a huge shopping complex in Loulé which also comprises an IKEA store.