Zara owner sees sales growth cool in autumn

Spanish firm Inditex, the owner of fashion chain Zara, has seen the unusually warm autumn take its toll on sales and profits.

The group saw like-forlike sales growth slow to 3 per cent in the six months to the end of November after an “extraordinarily warm September”, although growth bounced back to 5 per cent in October and November.

The clothing giant, which has 7,422 stores in 96 markets, missed forecasts with a 3 per cent rise in group net sales over the first nine months and a 4 per cent increase in net profits to €2.4 billion (£2.2bn).

It said: “The company decided not to participate in the promotional activity widely seen in the sector since September.”