Hello, welcome to our annual earnings presentation. I would like to wish a very warm welcome to all those of you connected online. 2024, for our group, was a year of excellent operational performance, and this was a result of 12 months where we have not ceased to adapt to the needs of our customers, and we have not ceased to innovate. The innovation spirit and flexibility have been features that have accompanied us since 1975, Zara started its activities. All through this time, we have innovated in our proposal, in the purchase experience we offer our customers, in the processes to distribute our collections anywhere in the world, and in a corporate culture which is characterized by constant questioning of all that we do and where we permanently search for improvement.
Innovation and flexibility are factors which explain that year after year we obtain figures which are as robust as the ones we are presenting today. As I was saying, 2024 was no exception to all of this. Throughout this year, we have developed a series of initiatives that are highly innovative. An example of this is the collaboration between Zara Home and Zara in El Apartamento, the incorporation of the first Zara Café to our Zara Man store in Hermosilla Street in the center of Madrid, or the consolidation of Oysho positioning as a sportswear brand. We have also innovated in terms of the experience we offer customers on our online platforms with a growing degree of personalization. Of course, we have also insisted on sustainability, where significant improvements to do with the achievement of our public commitments.
An example of this is that in 2024, 73% of the raw materials we use were low-impact fibers. We have also innovated in terms of our people, in terms of our teams, offering professional development opportunities through training and internal promotion, and reaching our target of doubling the number of members of staff with some kind of disability. The results we're presenting today keep us on the track of profitable growth in a context which is extremely demanding, but we feel extremely well-positioned in this environment given the diversification of our manufacturing origins, our channels, our formats, and the markets where we operate. Now, if we delve into the main figures of 2024, our sales amounted to over EUR 38 billion, a growth of 7.5% with respect to the sales of 2023, and 10% more at constant exchange rate.
This was a very positive evolution, and the evolution was positive across all our formats and across online and physical stores. We have opened 257 new physical stores in 47 of our 97 markets. In terms of online sales, they for the first time exceeded EUR 10 billion, thanks to 257 million visits to our platforms and over 8 billion visits. Gross margin stood at EUR 22 billion, which is 7.6% more. The gross margin accounted for 57.8% of our sales. We have kept our discipline in the management of operational costs, which grew by 6.5%, which is less than the increase in our sales. Also, EBITDA and EBIT evolved very positively, with increases of 9% and 11% respectively, and also profit before tax, which increased by 10.3% to EUR 7.5 billion, which accounts for 19.6% of our sales.
Finally, our profit stood at EUR 5.8 billion, an increase of 9% with respect to the profit of 2023. All of these figures ratify what I was saying at the beginning, namely that we are on a very profitable and efficient growth path. Our growth has also been highly responsible. The total tax contribution of our group in 2024 was EUR 9.3 billion. Spain accounted for 24% of that tax contribution, EUR 2.2 billion in 2024. We are still firmly committed with over 6,500 suppliers in Spain, which builds us EUR 7.6 billion. Also, we are still firmly committed with high-quality employment in Spain. There's 49,000 of us, a young payroll, basically female, and 87% with permanent contracts. It has been estimated that the total impact in Spain of Inditex, taking into account direct, indirect, and induced jobs, exceeds 165,000 jobs.
In Galicia, there's over 9,000 employees with a total impact on employment in excess of 90,000 jobs. The financial position of our group at the 31st of January, 2025, was EUR 11.4 billion. As we said on other occasions, it is the solidity of our financial position that constitutes the main guarantee that we're going to keep offering our shareholders an attractive dividend, and we're going to do our best to guarantee the sustainable growth of our group. As far as our shareholders are concerned, we're going to propose to the AGM the payout of a dividend for 2024 of EUR 1.68 per share, an increase of 9% in line with the growth in our profits.
As regards our investment, 2025 is the second year of our two-yearly plan for the strengthening of our logistic capabilities, which is still moving along and which is going to allow us to initiate the activity of our Zara distribution center in Zaragoza by this summer. For us, 2025 is going to be a wonderful year. In the first few weeks of the year, we've had very healthy growth, and this growth has accelerated in the last few days to 7% in the last week. We are very ambitious. We want to keep walking along the efficient, profitable, and responsible growth track. For this, our formula is going to be the same formula that has brought us here. We're going to keep adapting to the needs of our customers, and we're going to keep executing a series of projects and initiatives that are hugely innovative.
2025 is going to be the year where we're going to be opening our 98th market with the opening of our first few stores in Iraq. Some of our formats are going to be physically present in new markets. This is the case of Bershka in Sweden, Stradivarius in Austria, and Oysho in the Netherlands and Germany. We're going to keep executing projects that allow us to be in the most coveted areas in the world. An example of this are the Zara stores in Nanjing in China and The Grove in Los Angeles, and then the third apartment in Serrano Street in Madrid, or the new Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti stores in Oxford Street in London, and a new Oysho store in La Madeleine in Paris. We're also going to keep improving our customers' experience on our online platforms, identifying new ways of interacting with them.
Of course, needless to say, we are going to keep focusing on sustainability, moving towards the achievement of our decarbonization targets through the execution of our fiber plan and our transformation plan of our supply chain. 2025 is going to be the year we're going to be inaugurating the new Zara building in Arteixo, and we are now starting to work on the future Inditex Campus in Sant Adrià de Besòs in Barcelona. This campus is going to house the commercial and corporate teams of Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, and Lefties, and it is also going to allow us to strengthen our logistical capabilities in our current facilities in Palafolls and Tordera. As you can see, 2024 is going to be a tremendously exciting year for Inditex, full of projects.
Even if we are not really very keen on being self-complacent, 2025 is going to also be a year of celebrations because in May, we are going to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of our first Zara store in the world in Juan Flórez Street in Madrid, in La Coruña. We are also going to be celebrating 50 years of an innovative approach to fashion based on a permanent adaptation to the needs of our customers, where access to beauty and to new trends have ceased to be within the reach of just a few. Thank you very much for your kind attention, and we are now going to open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Good morning. When you want to say something, we will pass you the microphone, but please, before you start to ask your question, could you please say your name and the media you represent? Thank you very much. Good morning. Sorry, I've got a bad voice this morning. I'm Javier Romera from El Economista. I wanted to ask, first of all, related to the sales this year because it seems that they have slowed down like 4% compared to the previous year. Also, I would like to ask you about the share price because there's been a general fall in the stock market. I think the analysts at the moment are saying that the growth is going at a slower pace than it has done in previous fiscal years. Thank you. Thank you very much, Javier.
The trading update, the update that we've just given this morning, referred to five weeks since we started our campaign, and this is a period of time that's not very representative of what the whole year represents. Also, we have communicated that there's been an acceleration in growth, 7% up in the last week, and our position is that we are very optimistic with regard to the evolution of the 2025 fiscal year. Our collections have been well received by our customers, and we think that throughout the fiscal year, we're going to be able to maintain this growth path, which will be efficient, responsible, and profitable. As I already mentioned this in my speech, obviously, this is part of our business model, so we want to be innovative.
Our fashion is design, quality, reasonable price, and we're always listening to our customers, and we truly believe that we will be able to continue to carry out our business model in the right and suitable manner. With regard to the reaction of the markets, I think each year when we're about to give our results presentation, we always have an opportunity to say that we focus on the generation of value in the medium and long term for our shareholders, and we want to continue along this growth path, which was obviously going to be responsible and profitable, not just for shareholders, but for all our stakeholders. This is what encourages us, and this is what we always focus on. Thank you very much. Thank you. Victor M artínez from Expansión.
With regard to the question just asked by our colleague, I would like to ask you if you feel that the group is now going into a new path, which is similar to the growth it had prior to the pandemic, which is around 8%, and so it's lower than it's had over the last few years, which has been double-digit growth? Do you think there's still room to continue to have a double-digit growth as it has done over the last three years? Along the same lines, how much do you think this slowdown in the sales has been at the end of 2024 and has been taken into account the context of the market, and is that actually attributable to the company itself? Also, I wanted to ask you about online sales.
They've gone up 26% of total sales in 2024, and the group has announced that it expects to have a very strong 2025 in online sales. I would like to know if you expect that online sales will gain more presence. Finally, with regard to the 50th anniversary of Zara, is the group envisaging any sort of special celebration, something that will be very specific to the date? Thank you. Thank you, Victor. We identify growth opportunities in all the markets where we are, in markets where we've just arrived at recently, which are even developing markets, especially in the same line with our mature markets. In Spain, we say we would like to say we have a capacity to continue to grow in the mature markets.
We are seeing growth opportunities both in our stores and on the online channels, which I'll talk about in a few minutes. We are seeing growth opportunities for all our commercial formats. At the end of the day, this is what we are focusing on day after day. We are exercising and implementing our business model, and that's what we really focus on. When you talked about the other questions, we're very optimistic about this fiscal year. We're optimistic with regard to our positioning in the different markets where we are, and the reaction that the customers are having for our collections is a very positive reaction. Online sales, strong growth, but I honestly think that we have had the opportunity to talk about this in other events. Our model is totally integrated, and we don't think you can just talk about the evolution of online sales independently.
We have to talk about it with store sales too, because we think that online sales, to a certain extent, are due to the operating support they get from our stores. Likewise, the online platforms are a component, which means that they are helping people to go into the stores and buy there. Our model continues to progress correctly, and we're implementing a set of projects both for the online platforms and our physical stores, which means that the model is fully integrated. We've got the new alarm systems, and we've got the self-service checkouts, and also people can have pickup points for online sales, and also there's a drop-off point for returns. All this favors the full integration of the online platforms and our physical stores. 50th anniversary. Obviously, it's very important, milestone . It's a year full of celebrations, 50 years of activity.
It is too soon to announce exactly the initiatives that we will be preparing to celebrate this 50th anniversary. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Óscar. This is Helen Reid from Reuters. I'd like to ask first about the U.S. consumer demand and how that has changed since the start of this year. How do you see that evolving, and are you changing your forecast for U.S. demand for 2025? Was that connected to the slower sales growth in February? Secondly, what changes are you making to your supply chain to adapt to U.S. tariffs? Will you still be sending clothes from China to the U.S., or are you shifting to other sources to avoid the higher tariffs on China? Thank you.
Helen has asked for the demand for consumption in the United States and our perspectives for the year 2025, and have we registered any change in our strategy with regard to the supply chain as a result of the tariffs that may be adopted by the United States?
We are very satisfied with our performance, or the group's performance in the U.S. It continues to be the second market for Inditex. We've exercised throughout the year 2024 a set of projects that, among other things, have led us to opening our first door for Massimo Dutti in the United States, in the Aventura Mall in Miami. We've organized lots of activities in our Zara stores, including openings like the one we did in Frisco and in Dallas. Together with that, we've done refurbishments. We've enlarged our stores in Chicago and connected to store two. We feel that we're very well positioned and highly valued by our customers in the United. 2025 is going to be a year where we get a very important project.
We made reference during our presentation this morning to the openings that we are going to do in The Grove in Los Angeles and in Fordham, Las Vegas. Also, together with other openings, we're going to develop a series of initiatives for refurbishments and enlarging the stores in Boston, Hudson Yards, in New York, amongst others. Together with this, there's going to be a very good performance for our online sales, which has a very important weight in the market. Also, we're going to deploy other initiatives. For example, like in the year 2024, in the US market, we used our Zara Pre-Owned platform was launched in the US. This allowed our customers to have different alternatives to prolong the lifecycle of the Zara products. We're very optimistic.
We truly believe that if we exercise our business model in the correct manner, we will continue to have a positive evolution in the American market. With regard to tariffs, obviously, that's something that we're obviously keeping our eye on at the moment. We're monitoring it, but obviously, it's still a very uncertain environment. We feel that we're very well positioned. We have a lot of diversification, and I mentioned this in my speech, taking into account the sources of our manufacturing channels, markets, formats. We operate in lots of different markets, and we're very used to different tariff regimes, which are very different in all these markets, and we are very, very flexible. Therefore, we will monitor the situation. We have the competitive advantage of the fact that we have proximity production. Proximity for us is Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Turkey.
We feel that it is a great competitive advantage, and I'd like to say again, we feel very well positioned, which has helped us to ratify our guidance with regard to the gross stable margin for this year. Thank you very much. Good morning. Maite Gutiérrez ordera from La Vanguardia. I wanted to ask you about the Asian sales and the Americas. In Asia, they went down a little bit, and their growth is under the growth sales in the United States. What can you attribute this to? Thank you very much, Maite. Geographical areas include a group of different markets in there. We are talking about two geographical areas where the impact of the depreciation of certain currencies during the year 2024 has been very important in the case of the Americas.
We spoke about this this morning in our call with analysts, the impact that the depreciations in specific markets like Mexico and Brazil, which has been partially offset by the depreciation of the dollar. In Asia, that is also a market where we have registered certain impacts with regard to the currency. We truly believe that we're going to have a positive evolution of the market in both these geographical areas. I've already mentioned in previous questions the projects that we have in the America region, in the United States. For example, in Asia, very soon, on the 20th of March, we will be opening one of the most important stores we're going to have in that region, in Nanjing, in China.
Also for this year, we're going to have a very important refurbishment of our main store in Seoul, in Noon Square, and also two very important activities in Osaka and Japan, and also in Shinsaibashi . Therefore, we're very optimistic, and we truly believe that we have the ability to grow in these two geographical areas. Thank you. Good morning, Javier García Ropero, Cinco Días. Two questions, and if you will allow me, taking into account, going back to the tariff question, what tariff or what tariff regime have you considered in your forecast for this year, especially when we talk about the gross margin, which is what you talk to the market about? Is there any alteration in your tariff regime? Have you taken this into account, or will you be reviewing your forecast?
Now, talking about stock exchanges, obviously, I don't want to ask about the fall in the price of the stock price itself. Today, it went down a lot, and it also went down a lot in the third quarter. I don't know if you're worried about it or the company is worried about it to say that the market expectations compared to the business evolution is probably more than you thought. So the growth that you think is strong, maybe the market doesn't think it is as strong. Are you worried about this? Lastly, in Spain, the group is going to have less than 1,000 stores. I don't know, have you got an ideal number of stores in Spain? Or the optimization procedure doesn't have specific objectives? Thank you very much, Javier.
With regard to tariffs, the answer comes from our diversification of the sources and our markets where we sell. We operate in 97, 98 countries this year with physical stores, 214 markets which have online platforms, and we produce around, we produce our goods in over 50 different places. Therefore, we believe that we have the right conditions to be able to adapt to any new consideration or any new circumstance that arises related to the tariffs. The stock exchange, for us, the shareholders are important stakeholders for us together, whether our customers and our employees and the communities where we work. What we do, we try to generate value on the medium and long term, and to do that, we continue to put in a lot of effort with investors. We are exercising our investments, ordinary investments, which we do every year.
We have a plan that is valid at the moment to strengthen our logistic platforms. This is what we're focusing on, and we think that the evolution of a company in the markets can't be measured on the short term. It should be measured on the medium and long term. Also, we're very optimistic with regard to the evolution of our share price. Spain is still our number one market. Fifty years of, as I've already mentioned, since we opened our very first store here in Juan Flórez Street, in the very center of La Coruña. At the end of the day, we're continuing with our optimization process for our stores, not just in Spain, but in the rest of the markets where we have presence. We listen to our customers, and we identify where their needs are. Obviously, we're also strengthening our online presence in Spain.
We have physical presence in 170 towns, and the evolution of our sales is still very positive, not just in the last year, where I think it's like a 10% increase that we mentioned this morning, but also we provided the information to the analysts this morning, and we said that since the year 2019, our sales in Spain have gone up 31% with 31% less sales. It is important to note that our customers, both here in Spain, still positively value the proposal that we're offering on a daily basis and through the different channels that we have active at the moment. Thank you.
Gracias. Thank you. Good morning. Rocio Regidor from The Objective.
I have a couple of questions about this second-hand platform and see how it is performing in Spain or other markets, and I also want to know if for 2025 you are going to be implementing this pre-owned platform elsewhere. Also, in terms of the alarms and self-payments in the stores, I would like to know when it is going to be implemented across the different stores in the group. Thank you, Rocio. This pre-owned project is aimed at providing our customers with different alternatives to extend the lifecycle of the Zara products, which includes donation, repair, or resale. It is consistent with the strategy that the company has to promote a more circular model, and we are satisfied with the deployment of the platform. After the implementation in the US, it is present in 17 markets.
We keep improving what we offer our customers, and we believe that the platform is going to keep evolving throughout time and gaining muscle. With respect to the new soft tag strategy, for us, it is something vital, something very important. In Zara, it has been deployed in 100% of the Zara stores, and all the new Zara garments incorporate the new soft tag. In 2025, we have completed the deployment of the hardware in all our Pull & Bear and Bershka stores, and it will be incorporated in the collections of those formats, and afterwards, it will be extended to our other formats. This new alarm system is part of a series of other projects: self- assisted checkout, drop-off points for returns online, and it is allowing us to gain additional productivity, which we are plowing back in better service to our customers in the stores.
The use of all of these processes is gaining more and more momentum, and the results are extremely satisfactory, and customers are giving us excellent feedback.
Hello. I come from Bloomberg, and I have a couple of questions. The first one on the target for 2025 of taking Zara pre-owned to other markets and the idea that it should contribute to reducing emissions linked to the manufacturing of clothes. Today, you were saying that greenhouse gases linked to your business have gone down by 5% with respect to 2018. I wanted to ask you, in the two years where Zara pre-owned has been operating, how much has Zara pre-owned contributed to this reduction in greenhouse gases? My second question is about the United States. You were saying that you're going to be conducting eight projects in the United States this year and 13 in 2026.
I would like to know whether that 16 projects are going to be in addition to the 30 projects that you had already announced, so that by the end of 2026, you would have completed 43 projects in all. In terms of pre-owned, our target is for the platform to reach the core markets of the group. It is already present in 16 European markets and in the United States, and we are considering its implementation in additional countries. Of course, pre-owned is one of the many projects that we are developing in the realm of sustainability. I wanted to mention that with respect to that reduction in emissions that we announced with respect to 2018, a reduction of 5% in scopes one, two, and three, and reductions of 87% in our operations.
I think that it is quite remarkable that this has taken place in a period where our sales grew by 47%. We are capable of reducing the volume of our emissions in spite of the significant increase in our business and our sales. In 2026, yeah, there is going to be a series of projects. There are 13 projects. Some of them had already been communicated previously in 2023, and then there may be some additional projects. Just to give you an idea, to date, we are physically present in 25 states of the United States, and in 2026, we will open our first store in Charlotte in North Carolina. We are still identifying new markets. As you know, our business model is based on identifying potential expansions to new markets. We go step by step. We identify the right locations.
We are very privileged because we have the information provided to us by our online intelligence, and this is really very valuable for us. If there is a project that meets the requirements that we consider appropriate, we will no doubt be adding new locations. Thank you. Hello, good morning. I'm Sofia Vázquez from La Voz de Galicia. I wanted to ask you the reason for the slowing down of sales in the first few weeks of this year. Perhaps was it the weather factors? Some people have said this. I would like to know what you attribute it to. Another question would be, what do you think, given the role of analysts in the evolution in the stock market, some companies are using geolocation for logistical platforms, analyzing movements and also trends in Google with respect to the formats in the group?
Lastly, I would like to ask you, what is your forecast about inflation and about prices of your garments? Thank you. Thank you, Sofia. I will start by answering the last question. We have a very stable pricing policy. One of the main reasons that our customers trust us is basically the quality and the design of our products, innovation, sustainability, and affordable pricing. We have always insisted on keeping our prices as stable as possible. We have had to make some adjustments in certain markets, but always in a very careful way, government by government. The evolution of our prices in 2025 is going to be extremely stable.
Now, with respect to your second question, we live in a world where access to information is greater and greater, and the capacity of any observer to identify certain elements that might make them foresee the possible evolution of business is something that is there. It is a reality. Without prejudice to any proxes, the figures are what they are, and they are the result of the effort that we need to make every day, both in our physical stores and on our online platforms. With respect to the beginning of our campaign this year, it is a very brief period. We had a very tough like-for-like figure. As I mentioned in the last week, there has been an acceleration of the sales figures. We feel very confident. Our collections have been very well received by our customers.
I believe that for the year, we're going to be able to keep up with our forecasts. Buenos días. Good morning. I come from Economía Digital Galicia. I wanted to ask you, this is the third year that you have been CEO of the company. You've had two years of wonderful results. I wanted your opinion about these three years in your position and if it will be possible to keep up these double-digit growth figures in the future. Thank you, Cristina. I'm sure that you've heard me talk about what I think about these three years in this position. I'm extremely proud of representing over 160,000 colleagues who really do their best every day in their job. It is a huge responsibility. My job is really an honor, and I feel highly compelled to do my best every day.
Now, in terms of the future, the history of our group has shown that every year has been extremely demanding. If we look back, that first store we opened 50 years ago, each decision that had to be made when in 1988, the first store was opened abroad in Porto and then in Paris and New York. Each of those baby steps that the company took, each of those innovations, the IPO in 2001, the integration of physical and online operations from 2010, all of those were huge challenges. The pandemic, it's all this 50 years. In this 50 years, the company has had to face formidable challenges, and it has always measured up because the company has wonderful people, and they have all tried to excel, each of them in their jobs.
I think that we have always been innovative, and we have at the same time questioned everything we did along the way. We are always trying to do things better, and this is what has made it possible for us to move forward. We have been extremely demanding with what we did. Thank you.
Hola, soy Mar Gonzalo de la Agencia EFE. Volviendo un poco al gran tema que está sobre la mesa para todos. Empresarial y para el mundo en general, que es el de Trump. Trump's arrival on the political scene. Could you quantify to a certain extent to what extent Inditex? You have showed, obviously, you have got a capacity to adapt, and you've already said that with the analysis this morning. Now, how does Inditex think that this could affect them? What margins are you using? And where will you be doing the counterweight?
Like in Russia, I'd like to ask you about the Russian market, but you said that the US was a counterweight, but now the United States could be a factor that could destabilize this growth path. Could you quantify this? It would be a good idea to know what margins you have for next year and to see if you will be within these margins that you have set. Also, second question, what's happened to Russia? You've been normalizing the situation in Russia because the analysts talk about your capacity, or should we say your Trump card that you have, so you can go back to having business in Russia very quickly. That's already been mentioned.
This morning we said this, and we live in an environment that is very uncertain, but our obligation is to monitor every news item that is published and that throughout a day there are completely different contradictory news items published. Obviously, we can't do very long predictions. The estimations that we have for the year, as I've already said, we've got a gross margin, which is the gross margin that is the result of many different factors. Amongst other things, it's the reflection of the capacity of the group to be able to exercise or carry out its business model in a suitable way. Also, we need the right price policy. I mean, commercial variables were like the price of the goods that have to be suitable. We have a stable gross margin, which is around 15 basis points.
It's very difficult to quantify the impact in each one of these markets. We have the expectation that any circumstance that could arise, as we've got diversification of the origin of our products in the different markets, we think we will be able to manage it in a suitable way. With regard to Russia, in March 2022, we communicated our suspension of activities in Russia. In October, we communicated that we had sold our Russian business. Since then, we haven't been operating in Russia. The sale agreement did contemplate the right for Inditex to go back to have business in Russia if the situation was correct. I can't add any other comments today regarding that. Good morning, Laura from Capital Radio. I would like to ask you, now that the U.S. is your second largest market, have you considered manufacturing?
Because you say proximity in these uncertain times is important. Have you contemplated manufacturing in the United States, or would that be very expensive? As you have explained, you have got to face different tariff situations in the country where you pay tariffs. Does the tariff affect the final price of the goods? With regard to the increase of sales, the first few weeks, 4% up, as you said. At the end of the day, 4% is an average. I have several doubts related to that. The last week, which was 7, to have a 4% average, did you mean you had flat weeks or in which markets? Were there less sales, and where were there increased sales? Could you explain a little bit of what happened during the month of February and the first few days of March?
Thank you very much, Laura. With your last question, the evolution is positive. What we are identifying is an acceleration of this 7% over the last week. We believe that that is a positive trend that is going to continue, and it will be reflected throughout the full year. Obviously, like in any period of time that we can measure, there's always markets that have more positive results than others. Obviously, not so positive, but this always corresponds to the dynamics of the group. Our price model takes into account the added value contributed by the product that we want to sell to a customer with regard to the customer itself. It is not a price that we add up all the costs associated to that particular garment, and that gives us the final price. No.
What we do, we look at the design, quality, creativity, sustainability, and we always try to protect as far as possible to make sure that it is a reasonable price for our customers. In the case of possible tariffs, they shouldn't be changed. With regard to manufacturing, as you know, we manufacture in 50 different countries. For us, it's very important, and it's a very important asset to continue to have a relevant proximity manufacturing. This is mainly Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Turkey. Obviously, we do have a great diversification from the sources where we produce. What we've always declared over time is that we are very flexible to adapt to the circumstances at the time.
Wherever necessary, where we have manufacturing textile industries that can offer us their collaboration to be part of our supply chain in line with the group standards, we will always be assessing that, and we will try to identify if there are new opportunities available. As I say, we are highly diversified, and we think this is very important. The proximity production is something that we always try to protect as much as possible. You're not ruling out manufacturing in the United States. Is that correct or not correct? We make the decisions with regard to manufacturing according to the manufacturing industry capacity in any market. If it fulfills the standards for quality that we have, this means that we can produce or manufacture in a lot of different markets.
There is no market that we would definitely say no if there was a manufacturing opportunity, if there was obviously a capacity for this. Hi. Benjamín Santamaría from OKDiario. You talked earlier about tariffs, but I would like to know if you've ever considered the impact that this could have. I think in this case, it could be a positive impact, maybe, if there is any removing these special tariffs from like 150 products. This measure is something that Trump has mentioned, but I think the European Union is taking this seriously. In this case, maybe this measure could remove all the tariffs, or it could make the access to the European market more difficult. Maybe it would help you gain market share. Thank you very much.
We are focused on exercising our model and our ability to be able to respond to what our customers require on a daily basis. We offer our fashion proposal to any country in the world. We feel that we are very well positioned in this context. It is worthwhile highlighting, in the figures that I have mentioned this morning, there was a great evolution of all our commercial formats, including our formats which are the younger ones, which are demonstrating that by means of the design quality and that we are fulfilling our business model, we still seem to be very attractive for all our customers. This is what we are focusing on, and as a consequence, we still focus on being able to demonstrate on a daily basis to our customers.
It is worthwhile visiting our stores or to go into our online platforms and to continue to trust us. Okay, the last few questions. I wanted to a little bit because we talked this morning about textiles, innovations. What about your investment projects with regard to new generation startups? With what perspectives are you working with them, and how much of your investments are you going to dedicate to these new startups? Thank you very much. For us, innovation is one of the key elements at group level, and I have mentioned this several times. I offered you a series of examples, new commercial initiatives, the way that we try to personalize our online platforms for our customers. This is key, and also is key for us, is the sustainability innovation hub, which has got over 360 startups from all over the world.
What we are doing is identifying initiatives that could be pioneers and innovative in different areas, in fibers, in processes. This could help us to fulfill all our public commitments with regard to sustainability. 2024 was a year that was very intense with regard to the Epoch and Galy and Infinited Fiber, but it is not the investment in the capital of these companies. The only initiative that we carried out with regard to possible innovative projects. When we see that what we do, we offer to certain companies, we offer our commercial teams so they can carry out pilot projects so that they could, they are able to transfer what raw material or a fiber is in its initial stage. We have been obviously carrying out pilot projects and to implement them into our collections.
We put a lot of effort into innovations, and sometimes this could lead to favoring the developing of some of these projects by investing in their capital afterwards. Thank you. Mireya from Mercados. When you said you're going to go into the Iraq market this year, which formats will you go to the Iraq market, and how many stores do you think you're opening, or is it going to be a slow process? Thank you very much. Iraq will be our number 98 market in 2024. We went to Uzbekistan. We're going to start with stores for all our commercial formats in a shopping mall, and we think this will attract a lot of attention, and it thinks it will make it easy for us to offer our products, our fashion proposition to a lot of customers.
Obviously, when one goes into a market, it's a way of testing the appetite that could be in that market for our proposals, and we have great expectations for this. Thank you. Bueno, muchísimas gracias a todos. Thank you all very much for coming here today. Some of you work very close to here, but others will have to travel back home. I would like to wish you a good trip back, and we will see each other soon. Thank you very much for your attention.