Sales surge for Primark owner
THE owner of Primark has said a surge in summer sales has put the company on track to top its profits forecast after reopening stores.
Associated British Foods ( ABF) told investors yesterday that sales at Primark stores have been “reassuring and encouraging” since they welcomed customers back in June.
The consumer group said trading in its food divisions has also been better than predicted so far in the fourth quarter, as it provided a pre- close trading update for the financial year to September 12.
Primark stores have traded “strongly” during the quarter as ABF said they attracted customers for their “value- formoney offering and a welcoming and safe store environment”.
It said it expects to report around £ 2billion in sales since the reopening of stores until the end of the year.
Sales have been driven by larger customer baskets with transaction sizes initially “significantly higher” than last year due to “pent- up demand”.
ABF chief finance officer John Bason said: “We are encouraged that we’ve seen broadly based progress, but I think the particularly strong takeaway has been the power of the Primark brand. Having been closed for three months obviously caused pressure, but all over the country we’ve seen sales above what we were seeing last year.
“We saw big baskets in June but recent sales haven’t been due to pent- up demand and that’s really encouraging. July was great and ‘ back to school’ meant we saw a terrific end to August.”
The company said sales at stores in retail parks have been higher than last year, while shopping centre and regional high street stores are broadly in line with their average.
However, the largest stores in major shopping destinations have been hit by a significant slump in footfall amid lower numbers of tourists.
In the UK, like- for- like sales since reopening are expected to be 12 per cent lower than the same period last year.
It added that the earlier- than- expected reopening of stores means it now expects to book a £ 150million hit from unsold inventory, having previously predicted that it would face a £ 284million exceptional charge.