VS Series
Zara v H&M
Two global fast-fashion giants on the UK high street: which turns its racks into profit?
Zara UK leads on all five measures that matter most: turnover, pre-tax profit, profit margin, growth and net assets. Zara UK is the biggest by turnover at £1,771m, against £1,368m at H&M. Zara UK keeps more of every £100 it takes, £7.60 as pre-tax profit.
The year ends are up to 14 months apart, so this compares each company's most recent filing rather than the same twelve months.
Accounts compared: Zara UK to Jan 2026 · H&M to Nov 2024
Who they are
Zara UK
ITX UK Limited · 02245999ITX UK is the UK company of Inditex, the Spanish fashion group that owns Zara, and sells clothing, shoes, homeware and accessories through the Inditex shops it runs directly in the UK (116 at 31 January 2026) and online to UK customers.In brief: fashion retailer · Inditex's UK company · Zara plus sister brands · figures are not Zara aloneFull profile →H&M
H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Limited · 01413450H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK is the UK company of H&M Group, the Swedish fashion group, and sells H&M clothing, shoes, accessories, cosmetics and homeware through shops and online in the UK.In brief: fashion retailer · UK arm of H&M Group · shops and online · parent listed in StockholmFull profile →The Numbers
The leader on each measure is marked. Movements are against each company's own prior year. Pre-tax profit is filed except where marked (est.). ITX UK's sales of £1,771m cover all 116 Inditex shops it ran in the UK at 31 January 2026 and its UK online sales, not Zara alone: the accounts do not split sales by brand (ITX UK strategic report, year to 31 January 2026, p. 2).
Category winners
How they differ
How do Zara and H&M make their money differently in the UK?
Both UK companies are shop-fronts for a foreign parent: each buys all its stock from its own group and sells it to UK shoppers in stores and online. The difference is direction. Inditex's UK company is expanding, with 116 shops at January 2026 against 108 a year earlier and £155m added to its shops and logistics, and it keeps 52p of gross profit from every £1 of sales. H&M's UK company is shrinking its estate, from 238 shops to 228, and works as a limited-risk distributor whose profit is set within a range agreed under the H&M group's transfer pricing. The two sets of accounts are for different years: Inditex UK's to January 2026, H&M UK's to November 2024.
This panel reads: Zara UK, ITX UK Limited (all Inditex UK brands), accounts to January 2026; H&M, H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Limited, accounts to November 2024. The numbers above use each company's latest figures on Spark Intel, which can be a different year.
How they make it
52.3%gross margin (£926m gross profit)
Sells clothing, shoes, homeware and accessories in its UK shops and online. Every item is bought from other Inditex companies.
“The Company's merchandise is exclusively purchased from Group undertakings.”
40%of revenue from online sales
Shops sold £723m and online £549m; a further £82m was sales to other H&M companies. Stock comes from the group in Sweden, where its buyers sit.
“The Company's merchandise continues to be exclusively purchased from the group undertakings in Sweden.”
How they are set up
£109mof lease rent in the year
Selling and distribution, including running the shops, took £800m, 45% of sales. Rent on its leases is a running cost under its accounting rules.
“our store selection strategy has a significant long-term impact on the Company”
1.71%lower end of its benchmarked operating margin
A limited-risk distributor: a European benchmarking exercise sets the range its operating margin should fall in. £40m of its rent rose and fell with store takings.
“The Company operates under a Limited Risk Distributor with regards to transfer pricing arrangements within the H&M Group.”
How they grow
£155madded to shops and logistics in the year
Up to 116 shops from 108, with 7 openings and 5 relocations, and new logistics facilities to support online growth.
“The Company also made significant investments in its logistic facilities to support the business' future online growth.”
228UK shops at November 2024, down from 238
Opened 4 shops and closed 14. By December 2025 it had closed 11 more, seven of them Monki shops as Monki moves online into Weekday.
“as a result the Monki stores will close, and the online platform will be integrated with Weekday”
Where the profit goes
£100mof new capital from its parent
No dividend this year, after £137m the year before. Its Dutch parent added £100m of share capital, and £106m sat in the Inditex cash pool.
“During the financial year, the Board of Directors did not approve the payment of any dividend”
£119mowed to it by other H&M companies
No dividend, after £50m in 2023. Other H&M companies owed it £119m; it paid £14.6m of rent to the company that ultimately controls the group.
“No dividend payments were issued during the year ended 30 November 2024”
Not disclosed
Sales for Zara on its own, the split between shops and online, and like-for-like sales.
Sales by brand, like-for-like sales, and the price it pays its Swedish parent for stock.
Pages quoted: Zara UK pp. 2, 3, 7, 17, 23, 26, 28, 29, 30; H&M pp. 2, 3, 4, 11, 45, 58, 59, 65, 68, 71.
The two sets of accounts cover different years: ITX UK's to 31 January 2026, H&M UK's to 30 November 2024, the latest each had filed. ITX UK's figures cover every Inditex shop and online sale it handles in the UK, not Zara alone; the accounts do not split them by brand. ITX UK reports under FRS 102, with lease rent as a running cost; H&M UK under FRS 101 with IFRS 16, where most rent shows as depreciation and interest, so their costs are not laid out the same way. Percentages are our arithmetic from the pages cited.
Sources: ITX UK Limited, Annual Report 2025/26; H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Limited, Annual report and financial statements 2024. Page numbers are the documents' own.
The Takeaway
- Zara UK converts the most of its turnover. Of every £100, £7.60 reaches pre-tax profit, against £4.34 at H&M.
- Zara UK is the largest on the top line, £1,771m of turnover, 1.3x H&M's £1,368m.
- Zara UK is growing fastest, turnover +11.2% on its own prior year. H&M went backwards.
- H&M is the biggest employer with 7,807 people; Zara UK pays the most per head, an average staff cost of about £38,000.
- Zara UK has the largest balance sheet, net assets of £316m.
Who keeps the most of every £100 of sales?
Zara UK keeps the most: £7.60 of every £100 of turnover becomes pre-tax profit. H&M keeps the least, £4.34.
Every profit figure here is the one the company filed.
The chart splits each company's turnover into £100: what goes on people, on interest and on everything else, and what is left as profit.
Out of every £100 of turnover
Each column is £100 of that company's own turnover, so companies of any size compare on one scale; the figures are pounds out of each £100, not millions. Companies run from the best margin to the worst. Payroll is staff costs, financing is interest paid, other running costs are everything else, and profit is pre-tax profit, filed or estimated as marked in the table. A loss is not an extra cost: it is the part of the costs that runs past the £100 line, marked with a red bracket. Hover over any segment for its figure.
Who is the biggest, and does the comparison hold?
By turnover the order is Zara UK (£1,771m), H&M (£1,368m).
By headcount, H&M leads with 7,807 employees.
The comparison holds with the dates stated plainly: Zara UK to Jan 2026, H&M to Nov 2024. All are on the same filing basis.
Turnover on the latest filing
Who is growing fastest?
Zara UK grew fastest, turnover +11.2% on its own prior year, ahead of H&M (-5.4%).
Turnover change on each company's own prior year
Who employs the most, who pays the most, and who brings in the most per head?
H&M employs the most, 7,807 people, against 4,707 at Zara UK.
Zara UK has the highest average staff cost, about £38,000 a head; H&M the lowest, about £21,000.
Zara UK brings in the most turnover per employee, about £376,000, against £175,000 at H&M. It says as much about the business model as the workforce: a marketplace or a wholesaler needs far fewer people per pound than a restaurant or a gym.
Who owns each one?
Ownership as recorded on the Companies House register of people with significant control, in the bands the register uses.
What does the full ledger show?
| Measure | Zara UK | H&M |
|---|---|---|
| Registered name | ITX UK LIMITED | H&M HENNES & MAURITZ UK LIMITED |
| Company number | 02245999 | 01413450 |
| Incorporated | 1988 | 1979 |
| Accounts filed | 30 September 2026 | 8 December 2025 |
| Turnover, prior year | £1,593m | £1,446m |
| Pre-tax profit, prior year | £145m | £45m |
| Staff costs | £180m | £162m |
| Payroll share of turnover | 10.2% | 11.8% |
| Employees, prior year | 4,487 | 8,129 |
| Dividends paid | n/d | n/d |
| Charges outstanding | 0 | 0 |
A figure the filing does not disclose is shown as n/d; a zero in a filing is treated as not disclosed. Rounding: below £0.1m in thousands, £0.1m to £2m to one decimal place, above that to the nearest million.
Zara v H&M: common questions
How do Zara and H&M make their money differently in the UK?
Zara and H&M's UK companies are both distributors for a foreign parent: each buys all its stock from its own group and sells it in UK shops and online. ITX UK Limited, which runs all of Inditex's UK shops and not just Zara, is growing: it had 116 shops at January 2026 against 108 a year before, added £155m to its shops and logistics, and made a gross profit of 52.3% of sales. Its parent put in £100m of new share capital and took no dividend that year. H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Limited is shrinking its estate: it ended November 2024 with 228 shops after closing 14 and opening 4, and closed 11 more by December 2025, seven of them Monki shops. It sold £549m online, about 40% of its revenue, and works as a limited-risk distributor whose operating margin is benchmarked within the H&M group. Its accounts restate 2023 after lease errors, and the directors say it has not filed accounts on time for a number of years. The two sets of accounts cover different years: Inditex UK's to January 2026, H&M UK's to November 2024.
Who is the biggest of Zara UK or H&M?
Zara UK, with turnover of £1,771m in the year to January 2026.
Which makes the most profit?
Zara UK: £135m pre-tax in the year to January 2026.
Which employs the most people?
H&M, with 7,807 employees in its latest accounts.
Zara UK or H&M: which is bigger?
Zara UK, with turnover of £1,771m against £1,368m at H&M on their latest filings. On margin, Zara UK keeps more of each £100 as pre-tax profit. The full head to head is in the VS Series. Read the VS page →
Where do these figures come from?
Each company's latest accounts filed at Companies House. Each links to its full Spark Intel profile, which names the filing it comes from.
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