Following today’s release of Inditex’s figures for the six months ending 31st July 2023; Alice Price, apparel analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view: “Inditex continues to dominate in the fashion market, with sales in H1 FY2022/23 rising 13.5% to €16.9bn, sitting 32.0% ahead of pre-pandemic levels. This is in stark contrast with the H&M group, which saw sales for the six months ending 31 May 2023 only marginally surpass 2019 performance, demonstrating Inditex’s superior ability to remain versatile and quickly respond to evolving trends. Inditex’s momentum has continued at the start of H2, with the group reporting a strong reception to its AW23 offering, with total sales between 1 August and 11 September up 14% in constant currency, pointing to a continued strong performance for the latter half of the year.
“Sales growth was achieved across all regions, however Spain and the rest of Europe’s sales mixes increased by 0.2ppts and 1.5ppts respectively, demonstrating the resilience of the group’s offering during economic uncertainty. The same trend was not experienced in the Americas though, which is suffering from a step back in consumer spend in the US, with many shoppers likely turning to cheaper options such as Shein and Target. APAC’s sales mix also declined as local brands and luxury players continue to take market share.
“Zara (including Zara Home) revenue increased 13.1% to €12.4bn, representing 39.0% growth versus H1 FY2019/20, thanks to its comprehensive inclusion of different styles and trends allowing it to appeal to a broad demographic. Despite outperforming yearly revenue growth of 16.8% thanks to its integration of more pared back styles, Massimo Dutti remains the group’s most lacklustre brand, with revenue still marginally behind pre-pandemic, as the brand has been less receptive to evolving with the changing fashion landscape. Oysho saw the strongest sales growth on the year, with revenue increasing 18.3%, likely driven by its strong swimwear proposition, as demand for the category continued to rebound with the return of holidays, though it will have also benefitted from continued interest in athleisure.
“Despite the group reducing its store count by almost 10% over the past year, its focus on store optimisation through enhanced designs and technology to streamline the experience has enabled its sales to maintain momentum while reducing overall overheads, with the group anticipating instore productivity to continue to grow. Inditex also states that is has seen a “very satisfactory” performance in online, with its digital penetration continuing to grow, though the fact it did not disclose growth indicates the channel has slowed significantly as spend has shifted back to stores.”
