Inditex, which owns Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius and several other fashion brands, has reported a hike in sales of 36 per cent for 2021 in comparison to the previous year.

Overall sales reached €27.7 billion, while online sales jumped 14 per cent to €7.5 billion, representing around 25 per cent of total sales last year.

The retail giant said that it expects online sales to exceed 30 per cent of total sales by 2024.

During the same 12-month period, gross profit was up 39 per cent to €15.8 billion, while net income increased by 193 per cent to €3.2 billion.

The company said that in the first quarter of the year, while 24 per cent of trading hours were still unavailable due to restrictions, its sales trends “improved markedly” due to healthy store sales productivity and online sales growth. The following two quarters saw net income reaching record highs.

However, the company said that despite strong performance into the final quarter of the year, it was impacted significantly by a decrease in store traffic due to the spread of the Omicron variant, and restrictions in most markets and lockdowns in Austria, The Netherlands, Germany, Japan, China and the Philippines.

The cut in footfall resulted in a €400 million loss.

The impact on the gross profit due to increased markdowns as a result of the outbreak 3 FY2021 Results was approximately €210 million.

“Due to the sudden drop in store sales, it was difficult to compensate the incremental store expenses associated with the Christmas season and the additional costs linked to increased online sales,” said the company in its latest financial statement. “The impact from this was a further €190 million.”

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