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IN A COUNTRY home to high fashion labels like Chanel and Louis Vuitton, Ireland’s best-known budget clothes brand has been the one wooing customers.
France has proved to be the best feeding ground yet for Primark – which trades as Penneys in Ireland – the fast-fashion chain that began on Mary Street, Dublin in 1969.
Its parent company, Associated British Foods (ABF), this morning reported sales at the brand were expected to be up 13% over the past year after it opened another 20 stores in various countries.
“Very high sales densities were achieved by stores opened in the last 18 months and especially by our stores in France, which has been our most successful new market entry to date,” ABF said in an update just ahead of its annual results.
Primark has five stores in France, including three trading in Paris, and it plans to open another three outlets in the country over the next 12 months.
The company said sales in Ireland, the UK, Spain and Portugal had all been good, although sales in existing stores in the Netherlands and Germany took a hit because of new outlets being opened.
A US move
In the coming financial year, ABF plans to add more than 13% more floorspace to its Primark stores with most of the expansion to come with a US rollout and further growth in Spain and the UK.
The first North American store will open in Boston this week, while Primark will also unveil its maiden outlet in Italy and a new flagship store in central Madrid.
The clothes chain now contributes about half of all ABF’s profits, offsetting a poor performance from some of its other segments. The company’s grocery brands include Twinings, Ovaltine, Ryvita and Patak’s.
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I didn’t know she was broke.
I knew someone once that married an 89yr old woman ….. I said to him “Another year and the Crack will be 90……
What she sees in that billionaire I’ll never know…
Because small bald 84 year old men are every womans dream.
True love she’s not after his money
Her last husband was a bi sexual, her new husband is a buy sexual.
Best of luck to them. She deserves to be loved and secure after all she put up with from Jagger.
Is she guaranteed security from someone with 3 ex wives?
I wonder, does he move like Jagger?
Lovely couple. Wish ‘em all the best
Bill Wyman’s carer could have dressed him a bit better in that photo with the Geldofs. The reason I assume she’s his carer as she’s far too old to be his girlfriend.
4 times a charm. This should be his last marriage. At his age he surely hasn’t the time to break up with Jerry, meet someone else & marry them.
His kids look happy – wave goodbye to the inheritance
Only getting 3 billion each instead of 4 billion. How on earth will they survive?
She may be banking on his failing circulation, not to mention the newspapers.
” without Viagra”, the blonde stunner said, ” I can’t get no satisfaction”
I think the Irish equivalent would be DOB marrying Shirley Templebar.
So jerry, what first attracted you to the billionaire Rupert Murdoch???
She can wake up in the morning and think how great it is to be 24 younger than her billionaire lover.at least he is a kind sensitive soul.
Will Rupert,be able for a “harlem shuffle” with Jerry?
No, Start me Up, is his favourite.
Sympathy for the Devil
Bianca jagger isn’t looking so great
Sympathy for the Devil?
Can’t understand why she married an old man those cock is impotence!
I’d say somebody put him up to it ;-)
There’s still lead for a good story in the media moguls pencil.
Tracy Emin looking good…
59 ? Yeah right
What about her?
Hall pass?
His winding up British journalist by going to that church !
have your say