Zara owner Inditex’s profit jumps in Marta Ortega’s first year in charge

By Corina Pons

MADRID (Reuters) -Zara owner Inditex (BME:) on Wednesday posted a 27% increase in net profits in 2022 as sales exceeded pre-pandemic levels in the first full year since Marta Ortega, daughter of founder Amancio Ortega, took over as company chair.

In-store and online sales for the world’s biggest fashion retailer reached 32.6 billion euros ($34.99 billion), 18% more than the 27.71 billion euros posted the year earlier and 15% higher than in 2019, before the pandemic hit.

The Spanish group, whose brands also include Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear, said sales continued to rise during the first weeks of its fiscal year that started on Feb. 1.

Between Feb. 1 and March 13, Inditex said its sales jumped by 13.5% from the same period a year earlier.

The 2022 revenues were in line with analysts’ expectations as the company benefited from shoppers’ appetite for fashion as COVID-19 lockdowns ended.

Demand for Zara’s clothes continued even after a price rise of 5% or more early last year to mitigate inflation, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank (ETR:), UBS and Royal Bank of Canada.

The results may also lessen investor doubts about Marta Ortega succeeding the veteran Pablo Isla as non-executive chair in April, in a generational handover that began a decade ago when her father retired.

Excluding the Russian operation, where its stores have been closed since the Ukraine conflict started just over a year ago, sales in the Feb.1 to March 13 period increased in constant currency by 17.5%.

Also on Wednesday, rival H&M reported a 12% increase in net sales for its December-February period.

($1 = 0.9316 euros)