Spanish group Inditex, owner of brands such as Zara and the world leader in retail clothing sales, will leave Russia and sell the company in that country, the company announced on Tuesday.
Inditex “has reached an initial agreement on the sale of his company in the Russian Federation to the Daher Group, which has relevant interests in the distribution and real estate sector”, reads a statement from the Spanish group.
This transaction will lead to “the cessation of Inditex’s activities in the Russian Federation”, where the group’s commercial activities had already been suspended since March 5, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Inditex closed 502 stores that day and closed online sales in Russia, one of the largest markets after Spain.
The company said on Tuesday that if there are “new circumstances in the future that it believes will allow the return of the group’s brands” to the Russian market, the agreement between Inditex and Daher (a group of Lebanese descent) will consider “the return of the group’s brands” to the Russian market. possibility of cooperation” through “a franchise agreement”.
More than 9,000 people worked for the Inditex group in Russia and, according to the company, “the terms of this operation allow” to “save a substantial part of the jobs”, “because it allows the transfer of most” of the occupied spaces until now have been occupied by Inditex’s brand stores, which will become the points of sale for Daher’s brands.
Inditex emphasizes that Daher’s brands are “totally foreign” to the Spanish group.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Inditex assured that it has provisions that “substantially cover” the end of the group’s operations in Russia.
Last March, the then-executive chairman of the group, Pablo Isla, devalued the impact of the closure of 500 stores in Russia, making the United States of America the second largest market for the company’s products, after Spain.
García Maceiras then estimated that the suspension of operations in Russia was temporary.
Inditex owns brands such as Zara, Berhska, Stradivarius or Massimo Dutti.
The multinational, which describes itself as “one of the largest fashion distribution companies in the world”, was founded in 1963 as a small company in the Spanish province of La Coruña and is now present in almost a hundred countries.
In the 2021 financial year, which ended at the end of January, the Inditex group posted a profit of 3,243 million euros, 193% more than in 2020.
It is also the largest Spanish company in terms of market capitalization.
Source: DN
