"Not under current conditions." Inditex CEO comments on return to Russian market
The CEO of the Spanish group Inditex, Oscar Garcia Maceiras, said that the conditions for the company's stores to return to Russia "are absolutely absent," the Financial Times reports.
When asked what circumstances would be favorable for the group's return to the Russian market, Maceiras replied: "These are not the circumstances that exist now. Certainly not under the current conditions."
Inditex pulled out of Russia in 2022 after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before that, the Russian market was the company's largest outside of Spain, accounting for 8.5% of the group's total profits.
In 2023, the company sold its Russian business to representatives of a Lebanese family that manages Inditex franchises in the Middle East.
The Maag brand, created by new owners, is currently operating in Russia. According to the newspaper, it sells clothes almost identical to Zara and uses the same suppliers as Inditex.
"We have suppliers who work for us. We never look for exclusive suppliers. So they work for us and for any other industry participant," Maceiras commented on this situation.
The Russian Federation previously stated that it expected the return of Western companies by June 2024. However, according to the country's Deputy Minister of Finance Ivan Chebeskov, none of these companies have applied for return.
Instead, he noted that the country is seeing "dozens" of requests from companies that still want to exit Russia.
- On May 16, the Spanish company Inditex, which owns the Zara, Bershka, and Massimo Dutti brands, announced changes in top management.
- On June 11, Inditex reported a weak start to the second quarter and warned that currency fluctuations could have a greater negative impact on the year's results than previously expected.
