SPAIN’S Inditex- the world’s biggest fashion retailer- posted a 27% rise in net profits last year as sales exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
Net income soared to a record €4.1 billion in results covering the first full year that Marta Ortega, daughter of Inditex founder Armancio Ortega, took over running the company.
In-store and online sales reached €32.6 billion euros- 18% more than the €27.71 billion posted last year and 15% higher than in 2019, before the Covid pandemic struck.
“The excellent results of 2022 show the strength of our business model,” said Inditex chief executive Oscar Garcia Maceiras.
The positive figures come despite Inditex closing and then selling off its 514 stores in Russia- its biggest market outside Spain- following last year’s invasion of Ukraine.
The figures are in line with what analysts expected as the company benefited from shoppers’ appetite for fashion in the post-Covid period.
The group whose brands include Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Oysho and Pull & Bear, said sales continued to rise during the first weeks of its fiscal year that started on February 1.
Between February 1 and March 13, Inditex said its sales jumped by 13.5% from the same period a year earlier.
Inditex raised prices by 5% or more last spring due to inflation, but the move has not depressed demand for its products.
Despite closing 1,000 shops worldwide over the last three years, the company says it plans to significantly increase spending on new stores and e-commerce.
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