Despite supplying 216 million for the war in Ukraine, the group broke sales and profit records.

Inditex’s record figures at the beginning of the year. The textile conglomerate that owns Zara, Osho or Massimo Dutti grew its sales by 36% in its first quarter (which runs from February 1 to April 30), as announced today. Huh The first results since Marta Ortega took over the presidency And Pablo Isla came out.

Sales, which are already above the pre-Covid figure (5,927), reached 6,742 million euros Thanks to the “rapid recovery” of traffic in stores and “strong growth” across all markets, with special mention to the US, which has already become the group’s second largest market after Spain.

Profit reached 760 million and was 80% higher In the same period in 2021, when it was barely over 400 million, although stores in that period were still subject to restrictions due to COVID. In 2019, last year without the pandemic, the profit was 734 million.

Now that Covid has been left behind, the uncertainty for this first quarter had implications for the group of stagnation of activity in Russia and Ukraine. The company states that it has made a provision of 216 million for Expenses arising from the situation in these countries, where he had to close his stores when the war broke out. Without this provision, profits would have reached 940 million.

“The strength and adaptability of the business model, and the solid performance of our creative, commercial and operational teams deepen the differentiation of our offering with a strong focus on innovation, digitization and sustainability”, he explained. Mark Garca MaceirasCEO since last November, when changes were announced within the group: the departure of Pablo Isla and the replacement of Marta Ortega.

Online sales remain one of the pillars of sales, although they are down 6% from the 67% they registered in the first quarter of last year.

With regard to the second quarter, Inditex further said that between May and June 5, sales grew by 17% (13% in the last two weeks of that period).