PARIS — Zara parent Inditex saw sales hold steady in the first half of the year, with revenue rising 5.1 percent at constant currency in the six months ending July 31. The numbers looked less rosy once currency fluctuations were considered, with sales edging up just 1.6 percent.
The Spanish fast-fashion giant — which is also parent company to brands including Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Pull&Bear and Stradivarius — reported 18.4 billion euros in revenue, with net income ticking up 0.8 percent to 2.8 billion euros.
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“We have again achieved a solid performance in this first half of 2025, with satisfactory sales in a complex market environment and keeping strong levels of profitability,” Inditex chief executive officer Óscar García Maceiras said in a statement. He credited the company’s fully integrated model and agile supply chain, emphasizing in-season collection releases and proximity sourcing.
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Breaking out the second quarter, sales amounted to 10.13 billion euros, indicating constant currency growth of 5.8 percent year-over-year in the three months to July 31. Results were roughly in line with analyst expectations, though the news boosted bankers’ sentiment.
“Inditex has executed very well in recent years and has benefited from its strong design/buy set-up and quick response business model,” UBS analyst Richard Chamberlain said in a note. He credited the company’s investment in tech for inventory management leading to full-price sales.
On a call with analysts, Maceiras was joined by chief financial officer André Sanchez and director of investor relations Gorka Garcia Tapia.
Maceiras emphasized strong sales throughout the first half, with sales up 4 percent in constant currency in the first quarter, picking up momentum in the second.
The results put it ahead of its high street rival H&M, which saw sales gain 1 percent in constant currency in its second quarter, ending May 31.
“The group is navigating the pitfalls of heavy translation dilution in remarkable fashion,” Jefferies analyst James Grzinic said in a post-call note, characterizing the numbers as “nerve-steadying” and “very impressive” in context of the current economic upheaval.
Grzinic added that based on the results, he sees Inditex’s path to recovery “easier” than for “many luxury names in 2026.”
Indeed, Inditex’s momentum looks even stronger going into the third quarter. Sales between Aug. 1 and Sept. 7 rose 9 percent year-over-year at constant currency for the start of the fall season.
“That reflects an acceleration of the sales. We remain confident about the year ahead, and as always, focused on increasing the differentiation of the business model,” he said. “The results that we have announced this morning demonstrate the strength of the model that, in a complex environment, keeps with high levels of profitability.”
Sanchez credited supply chain efficiency for the steady results and “a very good gross margin performance.”
Noting that inventory levels were 3 percent higher than a year earlier, Tapia said this was tied to normalizing of shipping through the Red Sea following last year’s disruptions and is expected to continue to stabilize in the coming months.
Inditex also continues to invest in operational technology. Within Zara stores, certain in-store stock processes have been automated, allowing quicker movement of product from stockroom to sales floor or fitting rooms as part of the company’s ongoing push for seamless omnichannel retail execution.
Executives also highlighted ongoing international expansion across multiple brands. Stradivarius entered Austria with its first store in July, while Oysho will launch in the Netherlands on Sept. 11. Bershka is also set to open its first store in Denmark before year-end.
In the U.K., which Maceiras described as “very relevant,” Inditex has taken advantage of real estate in Manchester’s Trafford Centre and upgraded its presence across several brands. Zara relocated and expanded into an elevated design department store-style concept featuring a dedicated Zara Athletics section. Stradivarius and Pull&Bear both moved to larger spaces, and the group also debuted its first Bershka store.
Looking ahead, Inditex plans to revamp the Zara flagship on London’s Bond Street in 2026.
The U.S. remains another key priority. “The U.S. is a very relevant market for us, and we continue to see opportunities to keep on executing data strategy or selective growth in the market. In 2025 we remain very active in the U.S.,” Maceiras said.
A new Zara flagship opened in Los Angeles during the first half of the year, described by Maceiras as offering “significantly more space and upgraded consumer experience.” Additional revamps are slated for Austin and Boston, with new stores planned in Las Vegas and Costa Mesa, Calif., before the end of the year.
The company will also refurbish its Fifth Avenue flagship in New York, with a new San Francisco flagship set to open in 2026. The flagships seek to take on an upscale aura, and position the high street brand as aspirational to fend off Chinese ultra-fast fashion players such as Shein and Temu, which have cannibalized the low-cost market.
Inditex also continued to cull smaller stores in favor of larger, upgraded locations, with gross floor space expected to grow 5 percent over the next year. It expanded its Lefties concept, adding a dozen stores that serve as Zara outlet-style locations offering discounted prices.
Tapia said Lefties currently has a presence in 18 of Inditex’s markets, including Spain, Portugal and Mexico, and the company is “testing in a series of other markets.”
Addressing the global macro environment, the executives acknowledged uncertainty around tariffs, but downplayed the risk given the company’s diversified structure and sourcing.
“When we were talking about market and challenging conditions, we’re really talking about the market as a whole. With the tariffs and the trade wars and the consequence of the epic swings that we’ve seen over the period…the strong execution of the unique business model we have, we’ve been able to somehow overcome all of those headwinds,” Tapia said.
“You have to consider that we are a global company, and therefore we have a lot of experience with related to tariff regimes and changes of tariff regimes,” he added. “We have very broad-based diversification, both in terms of sales as well as in the sourcing. And I think this is a great advantage for us to manage all of these issues.”
Currency exchange weighed on results in the first half, with Inditex taking an estimated 4 percent hit, but Tapia noted that the group’s sourcing in U.S. dollars provides a “natural hedge” that has helped protect its margin. Addressing the U.S. market, he said pricing will remain stable. “All pricing activity, be it in the U.S. or any other geography, is primarily driven by commercial decisions, not financial ones. And what we try to do in every market is maintain our relative position,” he said.
The company also continued its investments in tech, joining the seed round for Theker Robotics, an AI-driven logistics information company. The round, which closed in July, raised 18 million euros for the three-year-old startup. Theker’s tech enables robots to operate in dynamic industrial environments without requiring reprogramming, using a deep learning platform branded “robotics-as-a-service,” or RaaS.