Zara’s parent records strong first half

Zara’s parent company Inditex Group has seen its first half revenue rise 11.5 per cent, underpinned by growth across all markets and brands.

First-half net profit amounted to €1.37 billion, seeing year-on-year growth of 9 per cent, while like-for-like sales growth was 6 per cent.

Inditex´s chairman and CEO, Pablo Isla, said the result underlined the “strength and sustainability of the company´s integrated offline-online store model, which year after year continues to demonstrate its ability to deliver growth”.

All of the Group´s brands including Pull&Bear and Massimo Dutti, expanded their international footprints, adding stores in 35 countries to take the global store count to 7,405, 113 more than at the start of the year.

Inditex’s capital expenditure for the year was estimated at €1.5 billion, following its opening, refurbishing and renovating of stores as well as upgrading and modernising its facilities and logistics platforms.

The Zara store in Marineda in A Coruña (Spain) saw the introduction of a prototype where an automated order delivery point allows shoppers to pick up orders placed online.

The prototype is articulated around an optical barcode reader which scans the QR code or accepts the PIN codes received by customers when they place orders online.

In a few seconds, the system delivers the order to a mailbox platform. Behind the platform, a dynamic robot moves through a shaft 8m tall by 2.5m wide with capacity to handle 700 packages simultaneously as seen here.

Inditex said sales in local currencies in stores and online grew 12 per cent for the start of its second half.