Inditex reports 20 percent surge in profits

Over the first nine months of FY2015 –February 1 to October 31, 2015– Inditex Group's net sales increased 16 percent from a year earlier to 14.74 billion euros (16.13 billion dollars). In constant currency terms, sales growth was 15 percent, with solid growth in like-for-like store sales. Net profit was 2.02 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars), up 20 percent over the same period the previous year.

Store and online sales in local currencies grew 15 percent over the period between November 1 and December 3, 2015.

Employees to benefit from profit-share plan

This growth, coupled with the group's investments, has enabled Inditex to generate 13,079 new jobs worldwide over the past 12 months, of which 3,291 were in Spain. The company said that all manufacturing, logistics, brand and subsidiary employees worldwide with more than two years' service will benefit from a profit-share plan for 2015-2016. The group will award these beneficiaries 10 percent of the year-on-year growth in profit attributable to the parent company.

Continues aggressive global expansion

The group continues with the global expansion of its fully integrated store and online sales platform. Over the first nine months of 2015 it opened 230 stores in 48 markets.

In terms of online launches over the period, Zara extended its online presence to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. Inditex also launched online operations in the southern hemisphere with the launch of Zarahome.com in Australia on December 3, 2015. Zara Home also launched online in Japan. Over the period, Uterqüe also launched online in Sweden and Denmark; Zara Home in Japan, and Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius and Oysho in China.

Inditex opened physical stores in all geographical areas, which included highly relevant stores for all the brands. Europe saw a net increase of 109 stores over the period, the Americas 47, and Asia and the rest of the world 74 to bring the Group's total number of stores to 6,913.

All of the group's brands increased the number of stores over the period. The most relevant openings to date include those of Zara in New York's Financial District, the first store in Hawaii, and a range of openings in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Stockholm (Sweden), Osaka (Japan), Beijing, Harbin and Hong Kong (China), Singapore, Brisbane (Australia) and Johannesburg (South Africa) along with several store enlargements and refurbishments such as Westfield London (United Kingdom) and Paseo del Born in Palma de Mallorca.

The period also saw opening of Massimo Dutti in Costa Mesa (California); Pull&Bear with its new flagship store in Madrid; Bershka, with its first store in Taiwan and its flagship store in Korea; and Stradivarius, with openings in all geographic areas from China, where it has opened stores in cities such as Chengdu and Harbin, to México, were it has opened in cities such as Coacalco, Culiacán and the Federal District. Oysho opened stores for the first time in Korea and Sweden; Zara Home also opened its flagship in Sydney marking its 500th store worldwide, and Uterqüe also opened new stores in Mexico and in Russia.

As of October 31, 2015, the group was present in 88 markets, with online operations in 28 of these.