Primark

Primark Stores Ltd.

Native name	Primark
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	Dublin, Ireland (June 1969 (1969-06))
Headquarters	Dublin, Ireland
Number of locations	257 Stores (2013)[1]
Area served	Western Europe
Key people	Arthur Ryan, Chairman Paul Marchant, Chief Executive Officer John Lyttle, Chief Operating Officer Ben Mansfield, Sales Director Breege O'Donoghue, HR, PR & Advertising Director Aidan Shields, Chief Financial Officer
Products	Ladiesswear Menswear Childrenswear Footwear Accessories & Hosiery Lingerie Homeware Cosmetics
Revenue	£2,730m (Financial Year 2009/2010)
Employees	22,000
Parent	Associated British Foods
Website	primark.com

Primark store in Cambridge.

Primark on The Headrow in Leeds city centre, occupying the former Odeon cinema there.

Primark in the Former Lewis's Building in Manchester city centre, the largest store worldwide

Primark is an Irish clothing retailer, operating in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland (38 stores branded as Penneys), Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.^[2] The company's main headquarters are in Dublin; they are a subsidiary of British food processing company ABF. Primark first opened in June 1969 in Mary Street (Dublin). It became apparent that more stores were required and another four were added to the chain.

Further expansion and success in Ireland dictated the move to the United Kingdom, when in 1971 it opened a large store in Belfast City Centre before opening four out of town stores in England in 1973. The first high-street stores were Derby and Bristol.

Market position

Primark sells clothes at the budget end of the market. Its main competition is that of other cut-price clothing retailers; such as supermarket lines.

Primark's products

All of the company's merchandise is made specifically for the company and as such Primark has its own brand names. Within both menswear and ladieswear there is one main brand name that supplies most of the fashion labels, which are added to by other suppliers.

Issues

Working practices

In 2006, Primark joined the Ethical Trading Initiative, a collaborative organization bringing together businesses, trades unions and NGOs to work on labour rights issues in their supply chains.^[3] ETI members commit to working towards the implementation of a code of conduct based on the International Labour Organisation's core conventions.

In December 2008, the UK charity War on Want launched a new report, Fashion Victims II, that showed terms and conditions had not improved in Bangladeshi factories supplying Primark, two years after the charity first visited them.^[4]

On 9 January 2009, a supplier was forced by ETI to remove its branding from Primark stores and websites following a BBC/The Observer investigation into the employment practices. The investigation alleged use of illegal immigrant labour which was paid less than the UK legal minimum wage.^[5]

On 16 June 2011 the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee (ESC) published its findings into a Panorama programme^[6] 'Primark: On the Rack', broadcast in June 2008. This programme was an undercover investigative documentary examining poor working conditions in Indian factories supplying Primark. Although Primark subsequently stopped doing business with the Indian supplier, the ESC concluded that footage in the programme was 'more likely than not' to have been fabricated.^[7] The ESC directed the BBC to make an on-air apology and to ensure that the programme was not repeated or sold to other broadcasters. Primark created a specific website to deal with the issues around the programme.^[8]

Building collapse at Savar

On 24 April 2013, the eight-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed in Savar, a sub-district near Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. At least 1,127 people died and over 2,438 were injured.^[9] The factory housed a number of separate garment factories employing around 5,000 people, several shops, and a bank^[10] and manufactured apparel for brands including the Benetton Group, Joe Fresh,^[11] The Children's Place, Primark, Monsoon, and DressBarn.^[12][13] Primark paid $200 compensation and emergency aid to the victims of the collapse, a move which was welcomed by Oxfam,^[14] and committed to review the structural integrity of buildings making its clothes.^[15]

Of the 29 brands identified as having sourced products from the Rana Plaza factories, only 9 attended meetings held in November 2013 to agree a proposal on compensation to the victims. Several companies refused to sign including Walmart, Carrefour, Bonmarché, Mango, Auchan and Kik. The agreement was signed by Primark, Loblaw, Bonmarche and El Corte Ingles.^[16]

Stores

Primark expanded rapidly in the UK in the mid-2000s. In 2005 they bought the Littlewoods chain for £409m,^[17] retaining 40 of the 119 stores and selling the rest. They opened in the Meadowhall Centre in mid-2007.^[18]

In May 2006, the first Primark store outside the UK and Ireland opened in Madrid, Spain. In December 2008, Primark opened its first stores in the Netherlands, followed in 2009 by its first stores in Portugal, Germany and Belgium. Primark opened its first store in Austria on 27 September 2012 in Innsbruck, this was followed by another store in Vienna which opened in October 2012.

The largest Primark store is located on Market Street, Manchester, England occupying 155,000 sq ft (14,400 m²) of retail space, spread over three floors. The Market Street store recently completed a full store refurbishment and extension to add an extra 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m²) of retail space to the ground and first floors.^[19]

Country	Number of Stores Trading as of 16 December 2013
United Kingdom	161
Ireland	38
Spain	35
Portugal	7
Germany	10
Netherlands	5
Austria	2
France	2
Belgium	1
Total	261

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Primark.

• Primark Ireland
• Primark UK
• Primark Germany
• Primark Portugal
• Primark Spain

v t e Associated British Foods Current operations AB Agri Ltd Abitec Corporation Abitec Ltd Argo cornstarch Allied Mills Allinson British Sugar Frontier (50%) G Costa George Weston Foods Illovo Sugar Kingsmill Mozolo oil Ovaltine (except USA) Patak's Primark Ryvita Silver Spoon Sunblest Twinings Former operations Burton's Biscuits Dairy Wrap Produce Fine Fare Kingsway Fresh Foods Lifestyle Sports Power Supermarkets Limited Stewarts Supermarkets Limited People W. Garfield Weston Garry Weston George G. Weston Guy Weston Other Garfield Weston Foundation George Weston Limited Wittington Investments Category