Inditex, which owns fashion chains Zara and Massimo Dutti, managed decent growth in the past year, despite a strong euro. Its online clothing sales performed very well.
Strong online sales
Among the major fashion groups, Inditex is unique, especially when it comes to online clothing sales: over the past year, it achieved a 41 % online growth spike and these now contribute 10 % of Inditex’ net sales. The Spanish company opened quite a few Asian web shops last year: customers in India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam were able to shop at Zara & Co’s web shops for the first time last year. Its annual turnover turnover reached 25.34 billion euro (+ 9 %) and resulted in a 3.37 billion euro net profit (+ 7 %).
The company has started 2018 in similar fashion: excluding exchange rate fluctuations, Inditex achieved a 9 % sales increase in the first five weeks, with subsidiary Zara’s spring and summer collections performing very well.
The results are a boost to the company, because exchange rates and the strong euro have made it vulnerable. The company’s shares plummeted drastically last month because of the strong euro’s position compared to other currencies.
