Mango (retailer)

On 24 April 2013, the eight-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed in Savar, a sub-district near Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. At least 1,127 people died and over 2,438 were injured.[14] The factory housed a number of separate garment factories employing around 5,000 people, several shops, and a bank[15] and manufactured apparel for brands including the Benetton Group, Joe Fresh,[16] The Children's Place, Primark, Monsoon, and DressBarn.[17][18] Of the 29 brands identified as having sourced products from the Rana Plaza factories, only 9 attended meetings held in November 2013 to agree a proposal on compensation to the victims. Several companies refused to sign including Walmart, Carrefour, Bonmarché, Mango, Auchan and Kik. The agreement was signed by Primark, Loblaw, Bonmarche and El Corte Ingles.[19]

In 2010, the French division of Mango was sued by Anne-Cécile Couétil, creator of the brand Velvetine, who argued that Mango copied two models of her handbags. Despite an attempt of protection via the INPI and similarities between her products and Mango's, the creator lost the lawsuit. She was ordered to pay €6,000 to Mango.[20][21][22][23] On her blog, Couétil claimed she wanted to lodge an appeal.[24] Several bloggers were surprised by the judicial decision saying it was unfair.[25][26] The brand Mango reacted on Facebook via its official fan page and answered also on the creator's blog.[24]

At the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion to Ukraine Mango tried to preserve its operations in Russia. “Given the responsibility we owe our 800 employees in Russia, as well as our franchisees and partners, we have tried to safeguard our operations in the country until the last moment.” the company said.[27] Mango decided to take several initiatives, as a response to the geopolitical situation. They included: providing support and aid to Ukrainian and Russian employees, offering financial support to employees who stayed in the country, and providing mentoring through local teams to all employees and their family members who have relocated out of the country.[27]

Mango was the first major company in the Spanish market to declare a temporary cessation of operations in Russia at the beginning of March.[28] The company closed all 55 of its stores, made unavailable its online sales platform in Russia, and ceased the shipment of new merchandise to the region.[27]

Despite temporarily halting its direct operations in Russia, the 65 franchisees that were considered “the key partners”[27] for Mango - and the marketplaces were still allowed to continue their operations and distribute Mango products, provided that they had sufficient stock available. 53 franchise outlets received by the Catalan brand continued operating in Russia[29] and selling the company’s parent product line.[30]

In June 2022 Mango announced that it plans to transfer temporarily closed stores to franchise partners in Russia.[31] In a statement, Mango also confirmed that the employees of company-owned stores, as well as the company's commitments to suppliers in the region, will be taken over by Mango's local partners.[31] In March 2023, Toni Ruiz, the CEO of the company, announced at the presentation of the company's financial results that Mango divested all of its stores in Russia to its local franchisees,[32] which are still operated and received by the Catalan brand. This resulted in a financial loss of 20 million euros for the company.[33]