There is a way to read the Inditex results in 2025 which makes them seem somewhat disappointing. Sales have grown by 3.2%, up to 39,864 million. Profit has risen 6%, to 6,220 million. These are record figures, yes, but the previous year profits grew by 9%, and the year before that by 30%. The curve is clearly moderating.
And yet, the market applauds, the analysts are satisfied and the company does not seem at all worried. To understand why, we have to stop looking at “how much” Inditex grows and start looking at “how it grows.”
Why is it important. For decades, the story of Inditex was told in stores. More shops, more markets, more square meters. In 2012, 482 establishments opened in a single year, an all-time high. Today that model is behind us.
What has taken its place is something harder to see from the outside, but more valuable: a margin discipline that converts each euro of sale into more profit than before, with fewer physical assets.
Between the lines. The most striking fact about the results is that in the last three years, sales have grown by 22% while the number of stores has decreased by 6%. The CEO himself, Óscar García Maceiras, pointed this out in the presentation of results, and it is not a minor fact. They are two curves that move in opposite directions, and that says a lot about the transformation that the group has experienced.
At the end of the year, Inditex operated 5,460 stores all over the world. A year before there were 132 more. The dynamic is systematic: 190 openings, but 293 absorptions. It opens less and merges more, concentrating traffic in larger areas, better located and capable of also managing the flow of online orders. Stores have ceased to be simply points of sale and have become hybrid logistics points.
The contrast. The number of establishments decreases, but the margin increases. The gross margin has reached 58.3% of saleswith operating expenses growing only 2.8%, below the pace of revenue. Every euro that comes in comes out cleaner. RBC analysts explained it this way after seeing the numbers: the result exceeded expectations precisely due to a higher gross margin and a greater volume of sales at full price, without discounts. Jefferies added another factor: reduced transportation costs and supply chain efficiencies. Everything points in the same direction.
It’s not just that they sell more. They sell better.
Main winner? The medium-sized brands of the group, which without making much noise are gaining weight. Bershka grew 12% in sales, Stradivarius 12.6% and Oysho 15%. Their pre-tax profits rose by around 20%, 15% and 35% respectively.
Zara continues to be the driving force (it represents 70% of the group’s turnover) but it is no longer the only interesting story within the conglomerate.
Main loser? Pull&Bear, the only chain in the group that has seen its profit before taxes fall: 7.8% less, from 458 to 422 million. It is also the only one with a return on capital employed that fell compared to the previous year, from 48% to 40%.
In a group where almost everything goes up, that data draws attention.
The big question. Can Inditex continue to break records if it grows more and more slowly? For now, yes. But the lever of store optimization is not an infinite resource. You can only improve productivity per square meter to a certain extent. Hence the 2,300 million that the company plans to invest in 2026 go mainly to technology, online platforms and channel integration. The next chapter will not be to open more stores but to make data and algorithms do the work that the square meter previously did.
The start of 2026 gives reasons for optimism: sales have grown by 9% in the first weeks of the new year. Amancio Ortega, for his part, will receive 3,234 million in dividends this year. The machine works.
Featured image | Salman Sidheek
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings