PARIS — Zara parent company Inditex said Friday it will gradually reopen its stores in Ukraine beginning April 1.
In a statement to WWD, Inditex confirmed the news, which was first reported by The Financial Times, that the retailer is planning to resume activities “based on local market circumstances.” It will reopen about 50 of its 80 stores in the country.
“The group’s priority continues to be the safety of its employees and customers,” Inditex said. More than 30 stores in the embattled south and east of Ukraine where the war is raging the fiercest will remain shuttered.
The first doors to reopen will be in Kyiv shopping malls, including three Zara outposts in the capital. Inditex previously operated a mix of its brands there, including Bershka, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti and its flagship Zara, prior to suspending operations in February 2022, following the Russian invasion of the country. The company has continued to pay salaries for employees there while business has been on hold.
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It also shuttered its 514 Russian stores at the time, and sold those operations to UAE-based Daher Group last April.
Prior to closing business there, Russia accounted for roughly 10 percent of Inditex’s global sales. The company took a writedown of 216 million euros related to closing stores in the first half of the 2022 fiscal year.
Inditex reported record profits in its most recent round of financial results reported in December, and indicated that sales continued to be strong.
In the three months to Oct. 31, net profits at the Spanish fast-fashion behemoth climbed 22 percent to 1.59 billion euros year-over-year. Sales were up 14 percent in constant currency for the period between Nov. 1 and Dec. 11, as the holiday shopping season gets underway.
Inditex’s full-year results will be released on March 13.
