•  Inditex shareholders approve the Company's 2013 financial statements.
  • Shareholders also ratified the motion to split every share registered into five new shares as of the close of trading on 25 July 2014. The new shares will begin trading on 28 July 2014.
  • During his speech to the shareholders, the Chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, summarised the company's performance last year, highlighting the company's significant investment effort, the growth in sales area and the jobs created. With regard to this, Isla cited investment of over € 5 billion and the generation of 36,000 jobs in the last four years.
  • Pablo Isla also unveiled the RFID project, under which Inditex is equipping its stores with cutting-edge radio frequency garment identification technology that will enable more agile and precise sales management. Mr. Isla defined the project as "one of the most significant changes in how the Group's stores operate".

Inditex's shareholders approved the company's 2013 financial statements and a total dividend payment of €1.51 billion at today's Annual General Meeting at the company's head office in Arteixo. The shareholders also ratified the stock split motion put before them by Inditex's Board of Directors. As a result, every share registered as of close of trading on 25 July 2014 will be split into five new shares which will begin to trade on 28 July 2014.

Investment in growth
During his speech to the company's shareholders today, Pablo Isla underscored the Group's growth in 2013, a year in which the store network reached 6,340 stores in 87 markets, 2,200 of which already meet the Group's eco-efficiency criteria. He highlighted the Group's sustained and sustainable growth, emphasising top line expansion of 50% and the addition of 1,093,261 m2 of sales floorspace in the last four years. These figures are underpinned by capital expenditure of over €5 billion during the same period, fuelling the creation of 36,000 jobs worldwide. Pablo Isla also emphasised the progress made on the flagship store refurbishment and expansion plan undertaken during the last two years, which has been accompanied by a redesign of commercial images for all the Group's brands.

The Group's significant capital expenditure effort in recent years, having invested €1.24 billion in growth in 2013, is also evident in the expansion and modernisation of the logistics platforms and management centres, such as the Cabanillas (Guadalajara), Tordera (Barcelona), Zaragoza and Arteixo (La Coruña) facilities, all in Spain. Against this backdrop, Pablo Isla also underscored the significant positive impact of these investments on revitalising the Spanish economy. Inditex has a headcount in Spain of 40,000 and many of these jobs are highly skilled. Furthermore, the Group works with more than 6,000 suppliers across Spain, adding a total of 82,000 jobs.

Implementation of RFID technology
Inditex's Chairman and CEO also unveiled the radio frequency identification technology (RFID) implementation project. This technology allows individual tracking of garments, from the logistics platforms until their ultimate sale.

This innovative technology, already in operation in over 700 Zara stores and being rolled-out further, makes distribution more efficient and in-store garment management more accurate, in turn improving overall customer service standards. For Pablo Isla, "implementation of this next-generation technology is "one of the most significant changes in how the Group's stores operate". All of Zara's logistics centres already have the technology fully operational and the Group expects to have it installed in all Zara stores by 2016 with plans for gradual rollout across the rest of its chains thereafter.

The RFID system codes each garment in the logistics centres, which means that when shipments reach the stores twice weekly, the system immediately pinpoints which sizes and models need replenishing. By the same token, the system drives enhanced customer service by enabling, with the help of cutting-edge technology, immediate identification of size availability either in-store, in nearby stores or online.

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