The world’s largest chain of stores, Zara, is preparing to open stores in Ukraine, closed since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation two years ago.
As informs Financial Times, the Spanish company Inditex, which owns Zara, has informed local landlords that the opening of stores is planned for the beginning of April.
The publication notes that Zara is one of the last to return to Ukraine.
Inditex plans to reopen 50 of its stores. The decision comes following months of Ukrainian media and retailers peppering him with questions regarding when he would reopen.
Retailers, restaurants and bars began to gradually open in the spring of 2022. H&M, which had eight stores in Ukraine before the war, resumed its work in November 2023.
Inditex closed its 84 stores in Ukraine, including brands Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti and Bershka, on February 24, 2022. Since then, the company stopped supplying goods to Ukraine, but continued to pay taxes and wages to its 1,000 Ukrainian employees, even though most of them were at home without work. Inditex has retained leases with landlords during the store closures, but did not disclose on what terms.
Initially, 20 stores will be opened in Ukraine, including three Zara outlets, in the shopping centers of Kyiv. In total, the company will open 50 stores in Ukraine, but Inditex cannot say how long this process will take. The remaining 34 stores are located in the south and east of Ukraine, where hostilities continue.