Zara parent Inditex: nine-month profit rises by almost a third

The Spanish clothing group Industria de Diseño Textil SA (Inditex) achieved strong growth in sales and earnings in the first nine months of the 2023/24 financial year. The development was “very satisfactory” both in stores and in e-commerce, said the parent company of brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Pull & Bear and Bershka in its interim report published on Wednesday.

Accordingly, group sales in the months from February to October reached 25.6 billion euros, exceeding the level of the same period last year by 11.1 percent. Adjusted for exchange rate changes, revenue grew by 14.9 percent. The company announced that sales had developed positively “in all regions and concepts”.

In the first weeks of the fourth quarter, sales grew by 14 percent after adjusting for currency effects

Thanks to favorable exchange rate developments and a “normalization of conditions along the supply chain,” the clothing supplier was able to improve its gross margin. Not least because of this, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 13.9 percent to 7.4 billion euros. The net profit attributable to shareholders after three quarters amounted to 4.1 billion euros. This corresponded to an increase of 32.5 percent compared to the previous year’s level.

The clothing retailer also remained on a growth path in the first weeks of the final quarter. In the period from November 1st to December 11th, currency-adjusted revenues were 14 percent higher than the previous year, the company explained. The autumn-winter collections were “very well received” by customers.

Based on the available figures, management now expects that the gross margin for the entire financial year will be around 75 basis points above the previous year’s level.

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