Inditex has rebounded from the pandemic

The fashion giant Inditex has successfully rebounded from the pandemic lows of 2020 with a solid 35% growth in revenues. However, they were not able to yet reach the pre-pandemic 2019 levels. This was mainly due to the restriction ridden Q1/2021, which saw -17% two year comps.

Inditex has been much more successful in managing the pandemic downturn and return from that than its Swedish counterpart H&M. They grew only about 6% from 2020 to 2021.

Inditex was also rapid in accelerating the move to online its online revenues jumping from 4,1 billion € to 7,5 billion €. That is still quite significantly behind the German online fashion retailer Zalando, which boasted online revenues of 10,3 billion €.

One has to note that Zalando sells only in Europe whereas Inditex operates around the world. Therefore in the comparative markets, Zalando is probably almost double the size of Inditex online.

When it comes to profitability, Inditex again reins supreme. With profit margins approaching pre-pandemic levels, Inditex recorded 11,7% net margin compared 7,7% operating margin from H&M and 2,4% net margin from Zalando.

For Zalando one has to keep in mind that besides selling online, Zalando does not have Private label brands. Both of these influence the overall profitability.