Zara Ireland turnover rockets as company eyes new opportunities

Turnover at the company behind the Zara clothing brand in Ireland rocketed almost 16 per cent last year, recently filed accounts show.

The accounts for Za Clothing Ireland Limited show that the local arm of the Spanish owned retail giant recorded turnover of €80.2 million last year, up from €69.2 million in 2015.

Ultimately, the company’s pre-tax profit soared too, by 13 per cent, to €4.46 million.

Zara operates 9 stores in the Republic in which it employed 364 staff last year. That number is up from 327 the previous year, as are wage and salary costs which jumped by 13.6 per cent to €10.9 million.

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One of those stores is located in South King Street, next to Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre. This newspaper reported on Wednesday that the billionaire founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega, was among four bidders shortlisted to buy the complex where H&M and Warehouse are also tenants. It was said that bidding could reach around €165 million.

Zara’s immediate parent company is the Spanish incorporated Inditex, which also owns brands including Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti and Bershka. An interim dividend of €5 million was paid to Inditex in January of this year and while no final dividend was paid, the €3.8 million profit after tax was transferred to the Irish company’s reserves.

While the company didn’t open any new stores in 2016, its Henry Street, Dublin, branch underwent a refit “in line with the Zara brand image”. In a directors note, the company said further stores will be opened “as soon as suitable opportunities arise”.