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Investing.com — The world’s biggest fast fashion company had its best quarter in a decade in the three months through April, as the relaxation of pandemic restrictions across major markets triggered a spending spree on new clothes.
Net profit at Inditex (BME:ITX), the owner of Zara and Massimo Dutti, rose to €760 million ($812 million) for the three months through April, in line with forecasts and comfortably above the €734 million that it posted in the comparable quarter in 2019, before COVID-19 swept across the globe.
Sales rose 36% to €6.7 billion, as the company succeeded in passing on higher input costs to customers.
Inditex’s underlying performance was even stronger, given that the results included a €216 million charge for closing its stores across Russia in the wake of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Russia was Inditex’s second-largest market in terms of shops and accounted for 5% of its sales growth between February and the middle of March.
