Zara owner reveals fashionable online figures

Inditex posted a rise in annual revenues on the back of strong online sales. Picture: Contributed

Inditex, owner of fashion brands Zara and Bershka, has unveiled higher full-year profit and sales as the retailer continues to bolster its online platform.

The world’s largest clothing retailer shook off the high street gloom to post a net income of €3.44 billion (£2.96bn) for the year to 31 January, up from €3.37bn a year earlier.

Like-for-like sales grew 4 per cent, with the group expecting a rise of between 4 and 6 per cent in 2019. Online sales last year grew 27 per cent to €3.2bn.

The Spanish firm, which owns Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear among others, has now rolled out the online platform for its core Zara brand in 202 markets.

It also proposed a bonus dividend of €1 per share to be shared between the years 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Inditex, which had around 7,490 outlets at the end of January, expects to open around 300 stores this year and launch Zara online in a further 10 markets including Brazil, Dubai, Indonesia and Serbia.