Zara owner says conditions for Russia return ‘certainly not’ in place, 20 June 2025

Inditex’s chief executive has declared that the conditions for the Zara owner to return to Russia are “certainly not” in place, more than two years after it sold its local business following the invasion of Ukraine.

Asked what the right circumstances would be for the group to re-enter the market, Óscar García Maceiras told the Financial Times: “An environment that is not the current one, of course.”

García Maceiras’s comments are the latest indication that multinationals are not rushing to return to the Russian market, despite an earlier proclamation by Russia’s chief investment envoy that western companies would begin coming back by June this year...

In early 2023, it sealed a deal to sell its Russian business for a “not significant” sum to members of a Lebanese family that run the Spanish group’s franchise in the Middle East.

But the terms of the sale included an obligation for the buyer, the so-called Daher group, to “immediately” set up a Russian franchise agreement for Inditex with the transferred stores should the Spanish company choose to return.

The FT reported this year that Maag, a brand set up by the buyer of Inditex’s Russia business, is selling near-identical products to Zara, and that the new owner relies on the same suppliers as its predecessor.

García Maceiras said “there is a plurality of suppliers” in the apparel market. “We have suppliers who work for us. We never look for exclusive suppliers. So they work for us and for any other actor in the industry. We have no further comment.”

On the similarity of products, he said: “This is a sector where, in the end, the trends are global trends. Absolutely any market player can identify through the website of any other player what the trends are . . . That is part of everyday life.”

García Maceiras said any decision to return to Russia would only come in a “more favourable geopolitical environment. But at the moment the conditions are certainly not right”...