Zara clothing group reports €1.9 billion net profit for 2011

Spanish firm Inditex, the world’s biggest clothes retailer under the Zara brand, yesterday reported a 12 per cent surge in net profit for 2011 owing to worldwide expansion, notably in Asia.

Net profit for the year stood at €1.932 billion, the company said, after it opened its first stores in five countries including Australia, spreading its high-street presence to five continents.

The figure was slightly higher than market expectations, after analysts polled by Dow Jones forecast €1.92 billion.

The retailer currently sells clothes online in 18 European nations, plus Japan and the United States.

By comparison Inditex rival H&M of Sweden has reported a net profits fall of 15 per cent in 2011 to €1.79 billion.

Inditex is studied with particular interest in Europe because of its huge success but also because it is exporting clothes to countries which themselves are big exporters of clothing to Europe where textile industries have been hard hit over many years.

Net sales for Inditex’s trading year which ends in January, rose by 10 per cent to €13.793 billion, it said.

Inditex said it would start selling its flagship Zara brand clothes over the Internet in China later this year.

The firm now counts 5,527 stores in 82 countries under marks such as Zara, Pull and Bear, Bershka and Massimo Dutti. It said it planned to keep up the pace in 2012, opening between 480 and 520 new stores worldwide.