Marta Ortega took over as chair of the board of directors of the Spanish textile group Inditex on Friday. The 38-year-old daughter of company founder Amancio Ortega asked for “support and patience” in a letter to the workforce published by Spanish media. We will continue to work tirelessly “to get better and to realize a promising future”.
Already in November there was a change in the chairmanship. Since then, Óscar García Maceiras has been responsible for the operative business of the group, which, in addition to the fashion chain Zara, also includes brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Zara Home and Bershka.
The new management duo must try to mitigate the effects of inflation and the Ukraine war on the textile giant’s business. The inflation rate in Spain was 9.8 percent in March. In response to the Russian attack on Ukraine, the company has temporarily closed its 502 Russian stores and also stopped online sales there. After Spain, Russia is the Group’s largest market worldwide. Here he had recently achieved 8.5 percent of the operating profit.
Inditex recovered from the Corona crisis relatively quickly and in the past financial year (up to the end of January) had almost returned to the sales level from before the pandemic. The company’s shares are still under pressure on the stock exchange because of the new concerns. Since the beginning of November, Inditex stock has lost more than a third of its value. (dpa)