Inditex, the international clothing giant, has reported a 9% increase in its net profit in the nine months to the end of October, growing to €2.21bn.
Its in-store and online sales increased by 16% in constant-currency terms between November 1st and December 12th 2016.
The retail group has continued to open new stores, it added 101 new outlets in Europe, 41 in the Americas and 85 in Asia and the rest of the world.
Over the past year, it's created over 9,000 new jobs around the world. One in five of these positions were in Spain.
Zara's flagship Barcelona store
The owner of Zara, Pull & Bear, Bershka, and Massimo Dutti now operates 7,240 stores in 93 markets and has online stores in 41 countries.
Inditex’s Chairman and CEO, Pablo Isla, commented on the results: "The company’s growth is driving noteworthy job and value creation in our various markets, most particularly in Spain.
"This momentum is the result of sustained investment – logistic facilities and stores - as well as the ongoing development of its integrated offline-online store model."
The Wall Street Journal cites a Credit Suisse release which notes that Inditex's gross margins have shrunk from 58.8% to 57.9% - which suggest the the sales boost could be partially fueled by price cuts.
