MADRID—The world's biggest clothing group, Spain's Inditex which controls the Zara brand, reported Wednesday a surge in profit in the first three quarters as it expanded globally and launched online sales in China.
Inditex said net profit leapt 27 percent from a year earlier to 1.655 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in the nine months to October 31.
Sales climbed 25 percent to 11.36 billion euros, said the group, founded 40 years ago in Arteixo, Galicia, by billionaire Amancio Ortega, the son of a railwayman.
Inditex opened 360 new stores in 54 markets in the period, notably under its brands of Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Pull and Bear, to bring the total to 5,887 stores in 86 countries.
Zara opened its first on-line store in China on September 5 and it plans to open another on-line store in Canada in early-to-mid 2013, Inditex said in a statement.
"The results for the first nine months of 2012 (business year) show that Inditex is continuing its global, multi-concept and multi-channel expansion," the group said.
Inditex chairman and chief executive Pablo Isla took over in July from Ortega, who remains the main shareholder.
source: interaksyon.com