Inditex sales rise 9.1% in the second quarter and hold at 9% into the fall

Inditex, the Spanish owner of Zara, Bershka and Pull&Bear, reported revenue of eleven billion euros for the three months to 30 July, up 9.1% on the same period last year. That marked a clear acceleration from the first quarter, when sales grew 5.8%, and came despite what the group called a highly complex global environment for consumers and for the wider economy.

Chief executive Oscar Garcia Maceiras credited the results to the company's teams, saying they had delivered the products and fashion experience customers wanted around the world. He pointed to ambition, flexibility and innovation as the differentiating factors he believes reinforce Inditex's long-term growth potential, in a statement issued alongside the figures.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Richard Chamberlain called the results very reassuring, pointing to Inditex's design and buy model and its quick response to demand. He said the group has become more integrated between stores and online in recent years and has used RFID tagging to maximise full-price sales through tighter in-store inventory control and faster, more frictionless checkout.

The momentum has not stopped at the quarter's end. Between 1 August and 7 September, the first five weeks of the new season, sales again rose 9% at constant currencies, with Inditex saying its collections have been very well received by shoppers heading into autumn.

That reading is notable given the conditions working against it. Extreme heat across Europe through the summer complicated the usual seasonal shift into heavier fall clothing, a transition retailers depend on to move stock and protect margins, yet Inditex's early third-quarter sales held at the same pace as the second quarter.

Currency remains a drag on the headline numbers and the comparison gets harder from here. Inditex expects currency effects to shave a full percentage point off sales for the year, and the base period it is now measured against includes the strong growth already logged earlier in 2026.

Behind the sales figures is a substantial spending programme. Inditex plans to invest around 2.3 billion euros in ordinary capital expenditure this year, aimed at capacity, efficiency and further differentiating its stores and supply chain from competitors in fast fashion.

A further tranche of spending is going into the group's own infrastructure rather than its shopfronts. Inditex will spend nearly 200 million euros upgrading corporate facilities, including its offices, alongside continuing refurbishment and expansion plans that will grow its gross retail space by around 5% in 2026.

Where the new stores are opening

Zara has pushed into Los Cabos in Mexico as part of that expansion, while enlarging, relocating or refurbishing flagship stores in three markets: London's Bond Street, Seoul's Gangnam district and the Belgian coastal city of Ostend, according to the company.

Bershka, Inditex's brand aimed at younger shoppers, is stepping up its own international rollout. The brand opened its first store in the United States in August, at Aventura Mall in Miami, with a second Miami-area location already planned to follow it.

Bershka has also been building out in Brazil. It opened its second Brazilian store in August, at Rio Barra, following its debut in the country in March at Morumbi in Sao Paulo, giving the brand two footholds in the market inside six months.

How the quarter compares across retail

Inditex's 9.1% growth sits alongside a mixed set of results from other retailers this earnings season. Victoria's Secret posted a 10% rise in second-quarter sales and raised its full-year guidance on the back of it, a pace close to Inditex's own and one we covered when the lingerie retailer's figures landed.

Lululemon moved in the opposite direction. Its leggings sales fell as much as 20% ahead of Heidi O'Neill's arrival as chief executive, and the athleisure brand's outlook was downgraded, a contrast we set out in our coverage of that slide against Inditex's acceleration.

The divergence underlines how uneven demand has been across mass-market and mid-tier fashion this year, even as luxury faces its own separate pressures. We have tracked China's wealth tax push deepening the slump in high-end sales there, a dynamic distinct from the fast-fashion demand Inditex is currently capturing.

Inditex has not disclosed a breakdown of the 9.1% growth by brand or region, leaving open how much of the gain came from Zara specifically against Bershka, Pull&Bear and its other chains, or which markets outperformed the group average during the quarter.

The company has given no date for its next scheduled results, but its own commentary points to the third quarter as the next test: currency headwinds are set to intensify and the sales comparison against last year's second half becomes progressively tougher from here.

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