FashionUnited Top 100 Index top companies’ aggregated market cap surpasses Apple's

Back in 2010, FashionUnited launched its fashion and apparel industry benchmark index, compounded by the 100 biggest industry players by market capitalisation. Back in the day, the leading 20 public fashion within the index had a combined market cap of 314.7 billion dollars, this is 27.4 percent of Apple’s current market capitalisation.

But since then, the industry, and the FashionUnited Top 100 Index has evolved rapidly so, as of today, these same 20 largest fashion companies gathered within the benchmark index exceed current Apple’s market capitalisation by 14.5 percent.

Thus, while Apple had a stock market value of 663.85 billion dollars, the leading 20 fashion quoted companies in the index are worth of a combined 772.97 billion.

Individually, each of these 20 companies enhanced their respective market capitalisation by 245.6 percent on average.

Inditex leads individual market cap increase with a whopping 280.6 jump since 2010

In terms of absolute increase to their market value, Inditex leads the pack with a 280.6 percent increase or 65 billion dollars since the index started in June 2010 to the 101 billion dollars market cap tag the parent company to Zara holds nowadays.

Second place goes for Nike with a 289.9 percent jump in the value the company has as per its stock pricing. Today, Nike´s market capitalisation stands at 95.1 billion dollars. Following Nike is fellow American group TJX with a 287.8 percent increase to today´s 49.5 billion dollars, and giant luxury goods group LVMH, which added 30.4 billion dollars (154.1 percent) to its current 54.2 billion dollars market capitalisation.

In relative terms, Under Armour (1,205.9 percent), VF (384.8 percent), L Brands (367.1 percent) and British Next Plc. (310.5 percent) top the charts.

Annual revenue also on the rise: largest 20 companies in the index gain combined 84 billion

Fashion companies keeps its privileged status as an attractive investment, with strong revenue increases on a year-on-year basis.

In 2015, the leading 20 companies within the Fashion United Top 100 Index alone posted a combined revenue of 337.5 billion dollars. This is 4.7 times the value of total fashion retail sales in 2014 within the UK and 1.4 times the fashion retail sales of 2014 in the USA.

Back in 2010 the top 20 companies in the fashion and apparel benchmark index had a combined revenue of 253.4 billion dollars, which was 84 billion dollars and 33 percent lower than today’s revenue. Following the comparison and back then, that combined revenue accounted for 4 times the UK fashion retail turnover and 1.2 times the US fashion retail sales.

Additionally, not only did the FashionUnited Top 100 largest 20 companies by market capitalisation raise their combined revenues by 35.9 percent, but they also obtained a larger share in the global fashion sales.

LVMH makes it to the top 5 again in terms of absolute growth in revenue, adding 11.7 billion dollars since it started to be accounted as part of the FashionUnited benchmark index. Other luxury players topping the ranks are Christian Dior, which added 11.2 percent in terms of revenue in the past five years. In terms of relative revenue increase, Under Armour grew by 359.8 percent, followed by Swiss luxury group Richemont, French luxury giant Hermès and Japanese competitor for Inditex, Fast Retailing (+169.7 percent).

Inditex replaces Hermès as the largest fashion company by market cap since 2010

There has not been much change at the top of the FashionUnited Top 100 Index over the past five years.

In fact, the four companies with the highest absolute increase in market capitalisation also have enjoyed the highest absolute increase in revenue. Of these four companies, Inditex, Nike, and LVMH top the podium in the FashionUnited Fashion Top 100.

Meanwhile, TJX has gained the fifth place after climbing two positions since 2010.

LVMH used to be number one in 2010 until it was overthrown by Inditex in 2013.

Other recent changes were those of Nike’s, which displaced LVMH to the third place after climbing two positions from fourth to second.

Under Armour and Next stand as the biggest winners

Remarkably is the rapid development of Under Armour, which holds leading positions as per both market capitalisation increase and revenue growth. Under Armour’s 1.7 billion dollars market capitalization in 2010 was good for its then 48th position; currently it holds the twelfth place with a 20.5billion dollars market cap.

Next Plc has also had quite a way upwards from its 24th place in 2010 to the current fifteenth position. Its market capitalization rose by 310.5 percent, it revenue rose by 117.3 percent from 5.3 B in 2010 to 6.2 billion dollars in 2014.

That said, it is noteworthy that both Next Plc and Under Armour have been the only newcomers to the FashionUnited Top 100 Index in the past five years.

After their entrance, Coach that stood twelfth in 2010 with a market capitalization of 11.6 billion dollars and now lives far way down in the index (29th position with a market cap of 8.0 billion dollars), saw its market capitalisation decrease by 3.6 billion dollars. Data analysed by FashionUnited suggest that this decrease is mainly due to lower sales. In FY15 Coach Inc. posted net sales of 4.2 billion dollars, not far away from its FY11 sales. In FY13 Coach’ sales rose to 5.1 billion dollars, although ever since sales have been at the down.

Also Polo Ralph Lauren had to trade its 19th position in 2010, with a market cap of 7.2 billion dollars for its current 34th place, given its decreased market capitalisation (6.6 billion dollars). In this case, the lost positions respond not to declining revenue, but to the preppy American fashion brand losing market share to its direct competitors (Hugo Boss amongst others).