Zara closes almost 4,000 stores globally amid coronavirus outbreak

The parent company of Zara has closed almost 4,000 of its stores across the globe amid the recent outbreak of the coronavirus.

Inditex warned the pandemic has had a “significant impact” in certain markets resulting in temporary closures of 3,785 of its stores, as the group was forced to close in 39 markets globally.

Inditex said it is currently “too early” to quantify the future impact of the virus’s effect on future revenues.

The group said in a statement: “As Covid-19 has spread around the world, the group has been introducing and implementing the procedures needed to prevent transmission since the beginning of the outbreak, closing stores as necessary in certain areas. It intends to continue to fully cooperate with the health authorities.

“The spring-summer collections were initially very well received by our customers in February. However, the global expansion of Covid-19 has since had an impact in certain markets.”

The update followed the group reporting an 8% increase in net sales to €28.29bn (£26.58bn) in its full-year results ended 31 January 2020.

Online sales also increased by 23% in the period as gross profit increased by 7% year-on-year to €15.81bn (£14.85bn).

Meanwhile, the group also reported a 6.5% increase in like-for-like in this period, as the company reported an increase in its earnings before tax and interest to €7.6bn (£7.1bn) from €5.5bn (£5.2bn) in the previous year.