Fast fashion giants could be particularly vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus.

This depends on a company’s share of sales from China, the total value of products it manufactures in the country, and how quickly inventory turns over. Fashion retailers such as H&M often produce their higher cost items in China, where factories have long developed skill at sewing more complex products such as jackets, while making basic low-cost garments such as T-shirts elsewhere. For H&M, China accounts for about 50 per cent of the total value of products it sells. Inditex, on the other hand, sources just ten per cent of its total value of goods from China, but it has one of the highest rates of inventory turnover, which might normally be an advantage but in this situation could prove a liability. Its largest brand, Zara, can turn a design into a finished product faster than much of the competition and keeps new items streaming into stores. But this also means Zara relies on its supply chain to constantly feed it. Retailers with high stock turnover are likely to be impacted sooner than those with low stock turn.

The virus has forced factory closures all around China, throwing fashion’s supply chain in the country into disarray. Even as factories reopen, many are working at diminished capacity.