Industria de Diseño Textil, S.A.

What does Inditex own?
Inditex owns eight commercial brands: Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Uterqüe. These brands span fast fashion, premium fashion, young consumer fashion, lingerie, home furnishings, and accessories. Zara is the largest brand by revenue and store count, accounting for an estimated 70% of group sales.

Is Inditex publicly traded?
Yes, Inditex is publicly traded on the Spanish stock exchange (BME) under the ticker symbol ITX. The company has been listed since May 2001 and has a market capitalization of approximately $190 billion as of early 2026. Shares are available to investors through major brokerage accounts.

Who founded Inditex?
Inditex was founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. Ortega was a former textile worker who started the business with the goal of producing affordable, trend-responsive clothing. Mera was a seamstress who co-founded the business and helped build the early manufacturing operations. The first Zara store opened in 1975.

Where is Inditex headquartered?
Inditex is headquartered in Arteixo, Galicia, Spain, a municipality near the city of A Coruña in northwestern Spain. The headquarters houses the company's main design teams, corporate offices, and a major distribution center. A second logistics hub is located in Zaragoza, Spain.

How many brands does Inditex own?
Inditex owns eight brands: Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Uterqüe. Each brand targets a distinct customer segment and price point. The company has not launched or acquired a new brand since Uterqüe in 2008.

Who owns Inditex?
Amancio Ortega controls Inditex through Pontegadea Inversiones, his investment holding company, which holds approximately 59.29% of shares. Ortega's daughter, Marta Ortega Pérez, serves as non-executive chairwoman. The remaining shares are held by institutional investors including Vanguard, BlackRock, and Norges Bank, along with public retail investors. There is no dual-class share structure.

What is Inditex's revenue?
Inditex reported net sales of €39.9 billion for FY2025 (ending January 31, 2026), up 3.2% from €38.6 billion in FY2024. In constant currency, sales grew 7.0%. Net income was €6.2 billion, up 6.0%. The company ended the fiscal year with a net cash position of €11.0 billion.

Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera founded Inditex in 1975 in A Coruña, Galicia, a region in northwestern Spain with a long textile manufacturing tradition. Ortega, a former shop assistant and textile worker, started the business with a simple idea: make clothes quickly, in small batches, and respond to what customers want rather than predicting fashion seasons months in advance. The first Zara store opened on Juan Flórez street in A Coruña in 1975. Ortega initially named the store "Zorba" after the film Zorba the Greek, but changed it to "Zara" when a nearby bar already had the Zorba name.

The early years were focused on building the manufacturing and logistics infrastructure that would become Inditex's competitive advantage. Ortega invested in in-house production rather than outsourcing to Asian factories, keeping design and manufacturing close to headquarters. This allowed the company to produce small runs of clothing, test them in stores, and reorder successful items within days. The model worked. By the late 1980s, Zara had expanded across Spain and into Portugal.

International expansion accelerated in the 1990s. Zara opened stores in New York (1989), Paris (1990), and Mexico (1992). The company also began building its multi-brand portfolio during this period. Pull&Bear was launched in 1991 to target younger consumers with casual, streetwear-inspired clothing. Massimo Dutti was acquired in 1995 for approximately $100 million, giving Inditex a presence in the premium segment. Bershka followed in 1998, aimed at teenage consumers. Stradivarius was acquired in 1999 for an undisclosed sum, adding another young women's fashion brand.

The 2000s brought Inditex's IPO. The company listed on the Spanish stock exchange (Bolsa de Madrid) on May 23, 2001, at €14.70 per share. The offering valued Inditex at approximately €9 billion. Ortega retained a controlling stake and took a low public profile, rarely giving interviews or appearing at public events. The IPO proceeds were used to fund international expansion, particularly in Asia and Europe.

Oysho, a lingerie and loungewear brand, was launched in 2001. Zara Home, a home furnishings and textiles brand, followed in 2003. Uterqüe, focused on accessories and leather goods, was launched in 2008. These additions completed the eight-brand portfolio that Inditex operates today.

The 2010s saw Inditex expand aggressively online. The company launched Zara online in 2010, initially in select European markets, and gradually rolled out e-commerce globally. By 2020, all eight brands had online stores in every market where Inditex operated. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced temporary closures of many physical stores but accelerated online growth. Inditex reported that online sales grew 77% in 2020, reaching €8.2 billion.

In recent years, Inditex has focused on integrating physical and digital retail. The company has invested heavily in store technology, including RFID tracking systems, mobile checkout, and automated distribution centers. In 2022, Inditex closed stores in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, affecting approximately 500 locations. The company has also been reducing its physical store count while enlarging remaining stores, a strategy it calls "Retail Optimisation."

For FY2025, Inditex reported sales of €39.9 billion with a gross margin of 58.3%, the highest in company history. Net income reached €6.2 billion. The company announced plans for 5% gross space growth in 2026 and expects a stable gross margin. In March 2026, Inditex reported a 9% increase in currency-adjusted sales at the start of its first quarter, signaling continued momentum.

Inditex has committed to net-zero emissions by 2040 across Scope 1, 2, and 3. The company is a signatory to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and has set interim targets to reduce absolute emissions. However, independent assessments have raised questions about the credibility of these targets.

The 2025 Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor, published by the NewClimate Institute, rated Inditex's climate strategy as "moderate," noting that while the company has comparatively strong emissions reduction targets, it lacks concrete plans to electrify manufacturing processes in its supply chain. The report also flagged Inditex's reliance on biomass and fossil gas as coal substitutes, which it said deliver limited emissions reductions.

Inditex's transport emissions have been a specific area of criticism. In FY2024, emissions from upstream transportation and distribution rose 10% to 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, driven by increased use of air freight. The company uses air transport to move clothing from production centers in Asia to its logistics hub in Spain, a practice that has drawn scrutiny from environmental groups. Swiss watchdog Public Eye reported that Inditex's air freight use sets it apart from competitors like H&M, which keeps air freight under 1% of transport emissions. Inditex has not published specific targets for reducing air freight volumes.

On cotton sourcing, Inditex has moved away from the Better Cotton initiative amid a deforestation scandal linked to certified cotton suppliers in Brazil. The company has increased purchases of organic cotton as an alternative. A 2024 investigation linked cotton in Inditex's supply chain to environmental and human rights abuses in Brazil, and a separate report connected Inditex suppliers to forced labor and debt bondage on Indian cotton farms.

Labor rights groups including the Clean Clothes Campaign and Public Eye protested at Inditex's 2025 annual meeting in A Coruña, calling on the company to address air freight emissions and to push its suppliers to drop criminal charges against approximately 3,000 workers in Bangladesh who protested for higher minimum wages in 2023.

Inditex publishes an annual sustainability report and has invested in circular economy initiatives, including in-store clothing recycling containers and a partnership with the textile recycling company Circ. The company is not a Certified B Corporation, and none of its brands carry independent sustainability certifications at the corporate level.

Inditex has faced scrutiny over its environmental footprint, labor practices in its supply chain, and the fundamental sustainability of the fast fashion business model.

In 2023, workers at Inditex supplier factories in Bangladesh participated in protests demanding an increase to the country's minimum wage, which was among the lowest in the global garment industry. The protests led to criminal charges against approximately 3,000 workers. Labor rights organizations including the Clean Clothes Campaign have called on Inditex to use its purchasing power to pressure suppliers into dropping these charges. As of 2025, Inditex had not publicly confirmed whether it had intervened with suppliers on this issue.

Inditex's use of air freight has been a persistent environmental controversy. The company's transport emissions reached a record high in FY2024, growing twice as fast as product volumes. Environmental groups have criticized Inditex for relying on air transport to maintain its fast fashion model, noting that the practice increases both carbon emissions and pressure on factory workers due to shortened delivery times. Inditex has stated it is working to reduce emissions but has not set specific targets for air freight reduction.

On cotton sourcing, Inditex faced criticism in 2024 after investigations linked cotton in its supply chain to deforestation in Brazil and forced labor on Indian cotton farms. The company sent a formal complaint to the Better Cotton initiative regarding certification failures and has shifted toward organic cotton sourcing. However, traceability in cotton supply chains remains a challenge across the fashion industry.

Inditex closed approximately 500 stores in Russia in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. The company subsequently sold its Russian operations to a Lebanese group, resulting in the rebranding of former Zara stores as Maag. This exit resulted in a one-time charge of approximately €300 million.