Discount clothing retailer Primark, one of the high-street’s biggest internet stay-aways, has announced recession-busting growth figures for the year to September 12 and is to continue with its programme of store openings both at home and abroad.
The Associated British Foods owned retailer reported trading in the second half of the year has been strong, with sales and profit expected to top last year’s figures and like-for-like growth of 7% expected for the full year, up from 5% in the first half. However, operating profit margin is expected to contract slightly as a result of sterling’s weakness.
This comes at a time when high street sales are generally stagnant and online retail is where all the growth is. Primark’s website is a basic affair with a little corporate information, a few pages on the firm’s ethical trading position, no product detail and no transactional elements. And, for now — in public at least — the firm has not indicated that it has any plans to begin internet retailing any time soon…
