Primark sales up 20% for year to date

DISCOUNT fashion store, Primark, which trades as Penneys in Ireland reported a 20% surge in sales for the year to date.

Primark-owner Associated British Foods (ABF) said good weather and low prices helped accelerate growth.

Penneys Ireland refused to comment specifically on the performance of its stores.

ABF said Primark’s improvement in sales to June 20 reflected store expansion and “excellent” growth in like-for-like sales.

ABF has opened a distribution centre in Northamptonshire and plans to open store in Bristol.

Personal stylist Natalia Colman of stylespecialists.co.uk said the secret to the store’s success was its ability to offer bright and breezy retail therapy to worried hard-up shoppers.

“The beauty of Primark is that you can go and fill a basket for £20 (€23) and you get loads of stuff; it satisfies the need for spending when we don’t really want to spend. Even on a very tight budget you can still update your look.

“They seem to be able to react very quickly. If you see a celebrity wearing a dress to the Oscars, you can get something similar in the shop within a week.

“They also tend to do very short runs of products and that lends a certain exclusivity and prestige and people love that feeling of having hunted out a bargain that no-one else has,” she said.

ABF finance director John Bason said it was too early to say how well the German and Portugese Primark stores were doing.

“If they do well then we will roll out [more stores]. If they don’t then we will look elsewhere,” he said.

Mr Bason said Primark plans to open its first Belgian store in Liege by the end the year.

On a group basis ABF’s sales growth for the 16 weeks to June 20 was 15% for its continuing operations.