Zara owner Inditex’s nine-month profit soars 32.5%, sales growth slows down

MADRID (Reuters) -Zara owner Inditex (BME:) said on Wednesday its net profit jumped 32.5% in February-October, but the fast fashion giant’s sales growth in the nine-month period slowed down from a year ago amid tougher times for consumers.

The world’s biggest fashion retailer said its net profit was 4.1 billion euros ($4.42 billion) as expected by analysts, most of whom are still betting on the company’s ability to sell fashion faster and draw more aspirational shoppers.

The company behind Zara and other brands is investing in bigger but fewer stores and logistics capacity to back up its online sales and deliver clothes a few days faster than its rivals, according to analysts.

Inditex’s sales, in stores and online, rose 11% year-on-year. A slower pace than the 19% increase reported a year ago, but it outperformed its main rival H&M (ST:) , as analysts had forecast. Its gross margin reached 59.4%.

In the first half of the year, Inditex had posted a 13.5% rise in sales and a 40% net profit increase.

Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 11, Inditex’s sales grew 14% in local currencies from the same period last year, showing a good start to the holiday shopping season, with Zara offering 40% discounts during the crucial Black Friday week.

This week, Zara pulled an advertising campaign featuring statues wrapped in white from its websites after it prompted some pro-Palestinian activists to call for a boycott of the retailer. The company said it regretted the “misunderstanding” over the advertising campaign.

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