Primark profit to surpass last year’s

BUDGET retailer Primark, which trades as Penneys in Ireland, has said that sales and profit will be well ahead of last year but its rapid growth has slowed.

Primark, which is owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), is the first of many retailers this week to announce a trading update. Next and Debenhams are among the other retailers that will also report.

At Dublin-headquartered Primark like-for-like sales growth of 6% is expected for the full year driven by a very strong performance in continental Europe and continued good growth in Britain, it said. This however, is weaker than thefirst-half’s 8% increase.