Zara pulls the shutter on its flagship South Bombay store after 8 years on ₹3 crore monthly rent

Zara ceased operations of its flagship store at Fort on Monday, February 24, according to a notice outside its outlet in the 119-year-old Ismail heritage building in South Mumbai.

While the notice did not detail the reason behind the closure of Zara’s Mumbai store, the answer might lie in high rental costs. The retail giant had been shelling out ₹3.02 crore per month, or ₹36.18 crore annually in rent, according to property registration documents on Propstcack cited by Hindustan Times.

As per the same report, Zara initially leased the five-story, 51,300 sq. feet property for 21 years for ₹2.25 crore per month in 2016, with free rent for the first five months. After the first three years of the tenure, the rent was increased by 5% to where it stood before the closure.

The Fort-based Spanish retail store was not making enough sales to keep up with the high rentals, according to a report by Business Standard.

The now-closed outlet was opened eight years ago in 2017 and was Zara’s largest store in India. It was also the fashion giant’s sixth store in Mumbai and 20th in the country.

Zara entered the country one and half decades ago in 2010 through a 65:35 joint venture between Inditex SA and Tata Group Trent.

Century-old Ismail building houses new tenants

According to property registration documents on Propstack cited by the New India Express, the iconic Ismail house has now been leased for five years by Purple Style Labs, a luxury fashion house for ₹36 crore per annum.

Netizens heartbroken

Social media was abuzz when this news broke with some netizens reacting with heartbreak. One person took to the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) to write, “How will I EVER recover from Zara Mumbai store being closed? Udhar kitni yaadein hai meri (I have so many memories there).”

“ZARA Mumbai store is closed!??!?!!!!?????????? My dreams are being shut down omg,” another typed out in disbelief.

“Zara is shutting down a few stores. How come? First, a Zara store at Orion Mall, Bengaluru, and now the iconic, beautiful store in the Fort area,” a netizen questioned.

With the Fort outlet now closed, Zara’s store presence in India has declined to 22. In Mumbai, five remain, with a Zara present in Phoenix Palladium (Lower Parel), Phoenix Market City (Kurla), Viviana (Thane), Infiniti (Malad) and Oberoi (Goregaon).