• The Executive Chairman announces that Inditex will bring its net zero emissions target forward 10 years to 2040. The Group is also bringing several other sustainability targets forward. This includes aiming for all its cotton to be more sustainable or recycled by 2023, two years ahead of schedule.
  

• Pablo Isla reviewed Inditex’s performance in 2020 at today’s Annual General Meeting.
  

• He highlighted that the “commitment, talent and work displayed by the entire team in 2020, and the flexible and integrated business model, has delivered results in the most complex environment”.
  

• The Group’s net cash position remains solid – ending the fiscal year at €7.56 billion. The Company’s shareholders ratified the Board of Directors’ motion to pay a dividend of €0.70 per share, thus extending the policy of paying out 60% of net profit.
  

During his presentation to the Group’s shareholders, Pablo Isla highlighted “the strength of Inditex’s strategic transformation and its fully integrated, digital and sustainable business model. This, combined with the commitment, talent and work displayed by the entire team, delivered noteworthy results in extremely difficult circumstances. As we expected, the transformation we embarked upon in 2012 continued to bear fruit”, said Pablo Isla.

Thanks to consistent active management, the Group’s operating expenses narrowed by 17%. Net profit totalled €1.11 billion and the Group ended the year with a solid net cash position of €7.56 billion. Moreover, inventories declined by 9% year-on-year following strong demand for the collections of all of the brands, coupled with efficient stock management.

A KEY YEAR FOR INDITEX’S STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION

The Executive Chairman explained during his speech how 2020 was key to Inditex’s strategic transformation, which the company embarked upon in 2012, and in which the Group has invested over €11 billion. Thanks to that effort, the Company has attained its goal of building a fully integrated and sustainable store and online platform that is capable of servicing customers in 216 markets worldwide. In 2020, Inditex added 25 new online markets and opened stores in 29 countries, while completing its Group-wide eco-efficiency store programme, which had reached all 6,829 stores at year-end.

It is also noteworthy that the rapid rollout of the integrated stock management system in 2020, which is available in 5,777 stores in 89 markets, has enabled the fulfilment of 46 million orders worth €1.16 billion from the Group’s stores. “Access to that enabling technology was critical during the lockdowns and store closures, particularly at times when as many as 88% of all stores were closed at once”, he recalled.

In 2020, 2021 and 2022, the Group will invest another €2.7 billion in its transformation programme, of which €1 billion will be invested in digitalisation and €1.7 billion will be invested in incorporating the latest technology across the Group stores, with the opening of as many as 450 major flagships planned for the period. In parallel with these investments, the different brands will deepen the digital integration of stores and online, adding new and innovative digital services such as the Store Mode.

In 2020, the Group’s apps and websites received over 5.3 billion visits and the eight brands’ various social media handles amassed 200 million followers.

Inditex’s Executive Chairman noted that the sharp acceleration in the transformation strategy and associated investments will allow the full development of the Group’s proprietary technology platform, known as the Inditex Open Platform (IOP). The IOP - the keystone of Inditex’s strategy - constitutes a hybrid, cloud-based digital replica of every phase of Inditex’s business model; it encompasses the entire product life cycle and enables constant interaction, feedback and fine-tuning.