Primark appears to have emerged well from the Covid crisis: the fashion discounter expects a 60 % increase in sales in the first half of its broken financial year.
Powerful recovery
According to the retailer, there has been an increase in shoppers on the high street following the disruption caused by the omikron variant of the coronavirus – particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland. For the 24 weeks leading up to 5 March, the fashion chain expects sales to be over 60 % higher than last year. However, that is still 8 % lower than two years ago – when the Covid saga was yet to unfold.
Primark reports that stores in retail parks and shopping centres continue to outperform those in city centres. Sales in British retail parks are now even higher than pre-Covid levels.
In Continental Europe the recovery appears to be well underway as well, with sales “well ahead” of 2021. Like-for-like sales for the period are still expected to be 14 % lower than two years ago due to the ongoing impact of omicron on footfall. Primark estimates the loss of sales caused by the temporary store closures in the Netherlands and Austria at around 32 million pounds (over 38 million euros).
