By Corina Pons and Helen Reid
MADRID (Reuters) -Zara proprietor Inditex (BME:) posted a uncommon miss on third-quarter gross sales on Wednesday however the world’s largest listed fast-fashion retailer stated the vacation buying season had obtained off to an excellent begin.
Gross sales of 9.36 billion euros got here in under the 9.51 billion anticipated by analysts. An 8.5% rise in nine-month web revenue to 4.44 billion euros additionally lagged the 4.52 billion anticipated by analysts.
Extreme flooding on the finish of October in Spain, Inditex’s largest market, probably damage the retailer’s efficiency, analysts stated, although the corporate gave no motive for the miss.
Inditex reported an excellent begin to the vacation season although, with revenues rising 9% in currency-adjusted phrases in the course of the six weeks to Dec. 9, which incorporates the important thing Black Friday gross sales. Nonetheless, that was slower than the 14% gross sales development reported a yr in the past.
“We had a robust begin to the final quarter towards a demanding comparable in the identical interval of 2023,” Inditex’s capital market director, Marcos Lopez, advised Reuters.
He stated currency-adjusted gross sales development was 10.5% within the first 9 months of the fiscal yr and currency-adjusted development in fixed foreign money in the course of the third quarter was the quickest of the yr.
Analysts had anticipated an affect from floods in Spain, Inditex’s largest market.
Clothes gross sales in Spain general fell 2.8% in November as Black Friday promotions failed to draw sufficient consumers, in response to trend retailers’ affiliation Acotex.
Shares in Inditex fell 6% on the open.
($1 = 0.9500 euros)
