For the nine month period ending October 31, 2014, Spanish apparel marketer, Inditex said its revenues lifted 7 per cent year on year to €12.7 billion.
Sales in local currencies in the reporting period were up 10.5 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
Net profit over the period was €1.7 billion, up a marginal 1 per cent as against the corresponding period of last year.
The Group said it created 8,500 new jobs during the last nine months, 1,500 of which were in Spain, lifting its global headcount to 133,400.
230 new stores were opened in all geographic regions and strong space growth continued, helped by major openings across all of the Group’s concepts.
Over the nine months, net new openings hit 154 in Europe, 34 in the Americas and 70 in Asia and the rest of the world, bringing the global footprint to 6,570 stores across 88 markets.
Specifically, during the third quarter, Stradivarius opened its first store in the UK, Massimo Dutti launched in Austria and Pull&Bear opened its first store in the Philippines.
Following recent online launches in South Korea and Mexico during the past quarter, the Group is now present in 27 markets.
The new distribution logistics facility in Cabanillas, central Spain, is now running at full capacity and required an investment of around €150 million.
This facility, in conjunction with the distribution centre in Narón, northwest Spain has allowed Pull&Bear to provide fully-automated distribution to all its stores around the world.
Inditex informed that implementation of RFID technology is on schedule and it plans for this technology to be fully operational in 1,000 Zara stores by the end of 2014 and all Zara stores by 2016.
According to Inditex, this innovative system is enabling Zara to enhance the customer offering by speeding up the purchasing process and improving the availability of popular stock in its stores. (AR)
