The owner of clothing retailer Zara is to close up to 1,200 stores around the world.

Spanish-based Inditex also owns brands such as Bershka, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti and Stradivarius.

The group says it is shutting down outlets as there has been a 44% fall in sales for the first quarter of the year.

However it adds that online sales were up 50% in the first quarter, and 95% in April alone.

Ultimately, Inditex says it plans to to have a total network of between 6,700 and 6,900 stores - down from the current 7,412.

It says this will involve opening 450 new stores, and absorbing between 1,000 and 1,200 smaller-sized ones.

Image: Inditex

These smaller shops account for 5% to 6% of total sales and are "less well positioned".

Most of these smaller stores are older stores belonging to brands other than Zara.

For Europe, the group says the priority will be to consolidate a strategy which will see an integration of physical shops and a digital presence.

However the company does not go into a specific country breakdown, except for its home market of Spain - where it says it will continue a process of opening larger stores while absorbing smaller ones.

It also notes that headcount "will remain stable".

The group says it will offer all staff members in any of the absorbed stores "positions to cover the needs generated by online integration such as dispatching online customer items from store."

Inditex has 24 stores across Ireland.

Main image: People queuing outside a Zara shop on South King Street in Dublin city. Picture by: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland.