Zara owner shrugs off retail gloom with 10% profits rise

The world's biggst clothes retailer, Inditex, known in the UK for the hugely successful Zara chain, today shrugged off the consumer gloom with a 10 percent rise in first-quarter profit.

Growth in emerging markets compensated for a slowdown in Europe at the company founded by Spain's richest man, Amancio Ortega, who remains its biggest shareholder.

Inditex has reduced the proportion of sales in its economically stricken domestic market through expansion into new markets like Asia and eastern Europe.

Inditex, which runs a stable of brands from up-market label Massimo Dutti to underwear store Oysho, is seen as having suffered less than competitors from rising wages in China due to more of its ranges being made close to home.

Most of its ranges are made in house in factories in Spain and Portugal, which gives it the edge on getting new fashions on the shelves on an almost weekly basis.

Inditex said it would launch Zara online in the United States in September, and the rest of its brands online in selected European markets.

Inditex posted first quarter profit of 332 million and an 11 percent sales hike to 2.96 billion.