Mango is putting its money on sustainability and stores.
The Spanish company recently invested in digital deadstock and upcycled fabric platform Recovo through its in-house innovation accelerator, Mango StartUp Studio, which uses capital to fund new ventures. Mango said a convertible equity loan will help Recovo scale. The platform gains access to Mango’s operations and mentorship advice about how to grow its business.
Recovo’s e-commerce platform sells textiles, yarn and production material waste recovered from industrial operations. The platform helps brands minimize their environmental impact, providing a source for raw materials destined for landfills. The one-year-old startup now gets training on the purchase and sale of textiles for a big company—which should help Recovo improve its product architecture and create an attractive, personalized marketplace experience. Mango will also help Recovo create recognizable branding to elevate its profile.
The investment supports Mango’s commitment to introduce more eco-friendly fibers into its range. In February, it announced that 80 percent of its garments now fall under its Committed label, meaning that they contain at least 30 percent sustainable content, from organic cotton to recycled cotton, BCI cotton, recycled polyester, recycled wool and Tencel. By 2025, it aims to use only recycled polyester and ensure that all of its cellulosics are traceable.
Mango is also growing its brick-and-mortar footprint. It recently signed an agreement with a subsidiary of Italy’s Grandi Stazioni Retail, which operates 30-plus storefronts in major train stations and will now absorb seven of Mango’s stores which previously operated as franchises.
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Grandi Stazioni Retail will now directly control those stores, which reopened as company-owned in October in Turin, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome Termini and Rome Tiburtina and Naples. These new 1,600- to 3,700- square-foot stores will exclusively stock Mango’s womenswear range.
“The agreement signed with Retail Group represents a step forward in the expansion plan Mango is implementing in order to consolidate the brand in Italy and in our strategic goals for international growth,” Mango expansion director Daniel López said. “Italy is a key market for us and for the fashion industry worldwide, and we want Mango to have a significant presence in this country.”
Mango also plans to open four more stores in Italy by the end of the year, including locations in Cagliari, Sardinia, Sicily, Campania and Riccione. It began its Italian expansion in 2001, and now operates 74 stores there.
The U.S. is also getting four new stores in Florida.
Mango opened a new Miami location on Oct. 14 in the high-traffic Lincoln Road shopping destination. “The opening of this new store marks a starting point for Mango’s expansion in the state of Florida,” López said, and it represents “a major step forward in our strategic goals for international expansion and consolidating our brand presence in the United States, one of the most important fashion markets in the world.”
Mango preserved the store’s existing structure while floors, lighting and installations were refurbished for a lower environmental impact than a full renovation. The Miami store will become the first U.S. store outside of New York to carry the menswear range.
A 4,300-square-foot store coming to Miami’s Aventura Mall will stock the womenswear range. November will see the opening of another 4,000-square-foot-plus location in Orlando’s Florida Mall near Disney World. Mango will close the year with a location in the airport-adjacent Miami International shopping center. It plans to open more Florida stores next year, including one in Boca Ratón.
Mango will focus on Georgia, Texas and California to grow its current eight-store U.S. fleet to roughly 40 by 2024. It’s looking to make the U.S. one of its top five revenue markets.
Much of this growth will stem from its e-commerce platform and sales through Nordstrom.com and Macys.com. During the first nine months of 2022, Mango’s online sales accounted for more than 50 percent of its overall sales in the U.S., and digital is seen driving 70 percent of U.S. sales by 2024. The company launched Mango Home in the U.S. earlier this year, including textile products for the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and more, some made using sustainable fabrications.