Zara’s parent reports strong trading result

Zara Men's MirandaClothing company Inditex international, which owns Bershka and Zara, has reported a strong performance for its latest nine months.

Continuing to roll out its global fully integrated store and online platform, the Spanish group opened outlets in 52 markets during the period. Its store count reached 7504 in 94 markets at the end of October.

It says like-for-like sales growth remains strong, while global online sales launches are on track. It launched online sales for Zara in India in October.

Net sales for the nine months reached €17.96 billion (US$21.2 billion), up 10 per cent.

Gross profit reached €10.3 billion, 9 per cent higher, while gross margin reached 57.4 per cent and EBIT was up 6 per cent to €2.99 billion. Net income was also up 6 per cent to reach €2.3 billion.

During the nine months, Inditex opened 212 stores including 60 for Zara, 30 for Stradivarius and 13 for Pull & Bear.

Inditex said it continues to develop its integrated offline-online platform, rolling out same-day delivery in six cities and next-day delivery in six markets, including Spain, France, the UK and China.

The fast fashion firm is deploying automated in-store pick-up points for online orders.

Commenting on the online-offline model, the company’s chairman and CEO, Pablo Isla, highlighted the “increasingly integrated management of the platform, which is translating into value-added customer services”.

Inditex opened 74 stores in Europe, 48 in the Americas and 90 in Asia and the rest of the world, with all of the Group’s retail formats adding to their store counts.

As for the online platform, Inditex’s reach currently extends to 45 markets in the wake of the inauguration of Zara’s online operations in India in October. During the 9M17, Zara also launched online sales in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

 

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