Primark linked to Oxford Street expansion

Discount clothing retailer Primark appeared to have the UK’s best known shopping street in its sights today.

The chain, which has 122 stores after a period of rapid expansion, is reported to have rented a 100,000 sq ft site in Oxford Street for its first outlet in central London – pitting it against rivals such as H&M and Topshop.

The site was formerly home to an Allders department store and was due to be converted into three stores until Primark’s offer was made. It is now being refurbished with an eight-metre high glass frontage and is due to open in early 2007, the Times said. Primark declined to comment.

The reported move comes after Primark spent £409m (€606m) on 120 Littlewoods stores in July and announced a £500m (€741m) plan for stores in September.

It planned to sell on most of them, keeping around 30 but after a forecast beating sales growth of 12% in the summer it said it would keep 10 more.

In February it bought six of Allders 25 stores – after the chain collapsed - in Bromley, Kent, Coventry, Leicester, Sheffield, Oxford and Hull.

Since 2000 it has more than doubled its share of the clothing market by value to an estimated 2.7% this year, according to Verdict, the market research firm, beating other budget clothing rivals Matalan and New Look.

On Friday, shareholders at the annual general meeting of Primark’s parent company Associated British Foods, were told that the group remained on track to report an improvement on last year’s profits.

Analysts expect ABF, which also makes Kingsmill bread and Twinings tea, to report a full year profit before tax of £613m (€909m), up from £590m (€874m) last year.