Inditex reopens its stores in Ukraine two years after the outbreak of war

Inditex is going to resume its operations in Ukraine two years after the outbreak of the war.

The Spanish fashion group that owns Zara, Stradivarius, Pull&Bear and other chains has developed a plan for the gradual reopening of stores that will begin on April 1 with around twenty establishments in Kiev and that “will be modulated depending on market circumstances.” ”, as confirmed by sources from the group chaired by Marta Ortega.

The forecast is to open up to fifty stores in the coming months, from the 84 it had before a war that has little sign of ending soon.

The company based in Arteixo (A Coruña) has already communicated its plans, reported this Friday by the

, to the shopping centers in which it operates.

sales will also resume

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“The priority continues to be the safety of employees and customers,” the same sources assure.

Inditex had kept its establishments in Ukraine temporarily closed since February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

This movement was followed by the vast majority of fashion brands, but many of them decided to reopen a few months ago.

The Swedish company H&M resumed operations last November and now Inditex, which had wanted to be more cautious, considers that sufficient safety guarantees are given to reopen.

Thus, the Spanish firm will begin to resume commercial activity in kyiv and the next openings are planned in Lviv, a city located about 70 kilometers from the border with Poland.

The return of Western companies to Ukraine is a support for the country, where a certain normality has been restored in some cities, but the threat of bombs continues to be low.

This is not an easy situation to develop a commercial activity.

Since the cessation of its operations, Inditex has continued to pay salaries to its employees in Ukraine (1,314 workers, according to the group's latest report, corresponding to 2022).

It also donated three million euros to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, at the beginning of the conflict, and has offered work in its Polish subsidiary to people displaced by the war from Ukraine.

For the return of activity, the company has begun to recondition the stores in the Ukrainian capital, three of them Zara brand, and part of the staff will participate over the next month in different training programs at the Inditex subsidiary. in Poland.

sales

, the seven brands of the group will resume the distribution of orders at the same time as they reopen their first physical stores.

Leaving Russia

Support for Ukraine contrasts with the strategy of Inditex and the vast majority of Western multinationals in Russia, some as symbolic as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's and Starbucks.

These companies chose to leave the country after the decision of the EU and the US to impose strong sanctions that made it almost impossible to operate, in addition to the reputational damage that remaining in that market after the invasion entailed.

Inditex suspended its commercial activity in Russia on March 5, 2022 and seven months later announced the sale of the business to Daher, a conglomerate based in the United Arab Emirates.

Both Russia and Ukraine were, before the war, key markets for Inditex. With 502 stores, Russia was the second one that generated the most profit in 2021 for the group, only behind Spain, while Ukraine was the country where the group opened the most openings. of new establishments during that same year, when the hypothesis of the invasion of the country was seen as unlikely.

Ukraine contributed 58 million to the profit before taxes.

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