GT Nexus announced that it has been selected by Inditex SA, one of the world's largest clothing retailers, to provide a platform for tracking and managing global ocean shipments. Delivered on-demand over the Internet, the GT Nexus trade and logistics portal will serve as the retailer's global ocean freight information system, to provide detailed container status and event information, documentation management and shipment transaction capabilities to automate interactions with Inditex's global network of ocean carriers.

Inditex has more than 86,000 employees throughout the world and posted sales of 9.4 billion euros in 2007. Its retail presence under the Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe concepts encompasses more than 4,200 stores in 73 countries worldwide.

To further scale the company's "fast fashion" rapid replenishment system in the scope of its global market growth, Inditex was looking for an automated solution to provide visibility into the inbound inventory flows from overseas suppliers. Improved transparency into inbound shipments will help Inditex's distribution centers proactively support the continuous store replenishment requirements for its stores worldwide.

"GT Nexus provides us with a very useful combination of universal connectivity to all carriers with well established data quality management processes, and real time visibility capabilities," said Abel Lopez Cernadas, director import export transportation at Inditex.

"We are honored to have been selected by Inditex," said Andy Stinnes, managing director of GT Nexus Europe. "The Inditex supply chain is world famous for making the 'Fast Fashion' retail concept a success. We look forward to providing them with a supply chain infrastructure and information services platform to support their global expansion."

GT Nexus got the platform up and running in less than four weeks and Inditex was able to use a fully operational system to identify and prove the value quickly.The platform will also enable Inditex to go paperless with logistics execution by fully automating freight transaction processes and related documentation. The initial phase will cover ocean freight, but ultimately will be expanded to air freight as well.