By Christopher Bjork

LA CORUÑA, Spain--Inditex SA, owner of the Zara chain of clothing stores, said its net profit rose 5.2% last year, helped by rebounding sales in its Spanish home market and further expansion in China and other fast-growing economies.

The Arteixo, northwestern Spain-based retailer, the world's largest fashion retailer by sales, said on Wednesday that net profit rose to EUR2.5 billion ($2.65 billion) in the year through Jan. 31, from EUR2.38 billion a year earlier. Inditex's sales grew 8.3% to EUR18.12 million.

The world's largest fashion retailer by sales also announced the launch of a profit-sharing plan for 70,000 employees in 54 countries, mirroring a similar incentive program by its Swedish rival Hennes & Mauritz AB. Inditex said that in the coming two years it plans to share 10% of the annual increase in profit with employees who have worked more than two years at the company. The program will be capped at a maximum of 2% of total profit.

Inditex in recent quarters has been helped by a rebound in consumption in Spain, where the company derives a fifth of its sales. The addition of 343 new stores in 54 countries and rising online sales also propelled growth.

Zara.com, Inditex's biggest online sales platform, is currently clocking 2.5 million visitors a day, more than double the traffic it was seeing three years ago on the site. In the coming months, Zara will begin online sales in another three Asian markets: Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

Like-for-like sales--which include online sales--grew 5% during the last fiscal year, compared with 3% growth in 2013.

Inditex said the growth trend continued into the first weeks of the new year. Store and online sales in constant currencies grew 13% between Feb. 1 and March 14, compared with a growth rate of 11% in 2014.

The company, which has a stable of eight store concepts including Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear and Bershka, said it plans to pay a dividend of EUR0.52 per share on 2014 results, an increase of 7.5% from a year earlier.

Write to Christopher Bjork at christopher.bjork@wsj.com

The company last year spent just under EUR1.4 billion on store openings and on an expansion of its headquarters and logistics centers. It also made a EUR400 million investment in a property in New York's SoHo district where it plans to open a new store.

This year, Inditex said it has budgeted EUR1.35 billion for capital expenditures, mainly to fund the opening of between 420 and 480 new stores and the closure of 80-100 smaller shops.

Write to Christopher Bjork at christopher.bjork@wsj.com

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