Zara owner Inditex’s quarterly profits hit by falling currencies
ZARA and Massimo Dutti owner Inditex posted its biggest fall in quarterly profits in half a decade yesterday after a strong euro dragged down sales.
Net profits fell to €406m in the first quarter compared with €438m the same time last year.
Falling currencies in some of its markets, such as Japan and Russia, knocked around six percentage points off sales.
But sales nevertheless jumped four per cent to €3.7bn, helped by new store launches and Zara’s online business, which combined with stores sales rose by 11 per cent at constant currencies.
Zara has launched e-commerce platforms in 25 markets and will add South Korea and Mexico in September. It also announced plans yesterday to join China’s Tmall online marketplace to bolster its presence in a country that was already its second biggest by store numbers behind Spain.
Inditex opened stores in 26 different countries during the first quarter, bringing its worldwide network to 6,393 stores.