MADRID (Reuters) -Zara owner Inditex reported on Wednesday its net profit more than doubled in 2021 to 3.2 billion euros ($3.51 billion) after its sales almost recovered from the pandemic as many countries eased the restrictions imposed to fight coronavirus.
Most of Inditex’s 6,657 stores worldwide were reopened from mid-2021 and the world’s biggest fashion retailer’s sales reached 27.7 billion euros, 36% more than in 2020 and close to pre-pandemic levels.
The annual results were close to what analysts polled by Refinitiv expected as most other fast fashion retailers such as H & M have ended 2021 with sales back to pre-pandemic levels.
The Spanish retail giant said the restrictions in countries such as Germany and Japan prompted by the Omicron variant spreading in the fourth quarter led to a negative impact of 400 million euros.
The Spanish company which also owns brands such as Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear weathered the health crisis in part through being able to produce more than half of its apparel near Spain and deliver them to consumers faster and raise the share of online sales to about a quarter of its overall revenues in 2021.
($1 = 0.9113 euros)
(Reporting by Corina Pons, editing by Inti Landauro)