Business

Spanish retailer targets South Africa

15 July 2010

Spain's Inditex, Europe's largest clothing retailer, says it will move into South Africa in 2011 as the owner of the Zara, Massimo Dutti and Bershka brands pushes ahead with its aggressive international expansion.

The decision to enter two new markets – South Africa and Australia – was announced on Wednesday at the company's annual general meeting at its headquarters at Arteixo in northwestern Spain.

Of the 343 new stores that the retailer opened last year, 98 percent were outside of Spain.

Inditex opened its first stores in Syria in 2009, while so far this year it has exanded into Bulgaria, India and Kazakhstan, bringing the total number of markets in which it is present to 77.

The company posted a net profit of €1.31-billion (R12.5-billion) in 2009, up from €1.25-billion in the previous year.

Sales in Spain, where the jobless rate has soared to 20 percent since the collapse of a property bubble at the end of 2008, accounted for 31.8 percent of total sales last year, compared with 33.9 percent in the previous year.

Sapa