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PENNEYS HAS OPENED the doors of its flagship store in Spain today.
The Irish fashion retailer, which trades under the name Primark outside of Ireland, already has seven other stores Madrid and 40 (now 41) altogether in Spain.
The opening of Gran Vía 32 in Madrid is Primark’s largest store in Spain and will see 573 staff employed to run the five floor outlet.
Primark has a total workforce of 7,400 employees in Spain.
The spacious store has 131 cash registers and 91 fitting rooms to keep the traffic flowing.
Primarks says that even employees in ‘back of house’ will enjoy open spaces that are filled with natural light and designed with modern features and comforts such as café and chill out area.
The store is located in one of the most iconic buildings on Madrid’s Gran Vía. The former Almacenes Madrid-Paris opened its doors in January 1924, with the aim of bringing the French grands magasins to Spanish society.
A Primark spokesperson said: “Spain has been one of our most important markets in Europe since the first store opened in 2006.
The new Gran Vía store is a key store opening in the company’s business strategy in this country, occupying an historic site in the Spanish capital’s business and commercial hub, Gran Vía.
Primark says that when remodelling the store, it maintained several architectural and decorative elements that were distinctive, such as the façades of multiple windows, the massive 30-metre dome and the circular hall with its balustrade and staircase.
So far the reaction has been very positive:
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They seem to have nice shops everywhere except in Ireland. You should see Penneys in Carlow. It has to be the most miserable shop on the planet
The one on Mary Street is really nice…
The other one on O Connell street, however, is grim.
they are all getting a revamp I’m sure they will get to carlow at some stage
It truly is a dump of a store. Think its due for a rebuild.
there’s only one good thing in Carlow….the road out of there…
Until you wandered the aisles in the old Penny’s in Naas you ain’t seen nothing.
Negativity alpha ……rename yourself omega
The one in Galway shopping centre (not Eyre Square one) is tiny
That is quite amazing. I have a sister in NY for the last 30 odd years and every time she comes home she goes straight to Penny’s to buy suitcases of clothes. Spends her time in there. When she goes back to NY, the shopping capital of the world, she says they love the clothes she wears as they can’t get them there.
She’ll be found out soon though as they are opening in NY too I believe.
Your sister sounds cool
I have a sister in Albany.
I have a sister too
My sister’s really cool as well.
it’s already open.
Pepper , they opened about ten days ago. First , NY and now Spain. Very expansionary .
I used to have a sister.
Still do.
I have 2 sisters
I’ve had all your sisters
They opened in Boston none in NYC yet but it’s there’s next American move… In the world of retail they are taking over! Just a pity they won’t invest in all the stores in Ireland 1st.. There really is still some dives, O Connell St store is depressing, Liffey Valley next for the revamp/new store!
somebody should tell the British that’s is still an irish company despite being part of a UK company. …In saying that the economist referred to it an “a successful irish clothing company ” recently
It’s owned by ?Canadian s
Why? Why would they care? They don’t need to ‘tell’ the Irish that topshop is British, Zara doesn’t feel the need to tell the Irish that they’re spanish….Companies these days change hands all the time, its almost difficult to put a nationality to an international company, Guinness is owned by diageo – a British company, the iconic British car mini is owned by BMW a German company. Get over it nobody cares if you think its ‘yours’…
meanderings…..Am out having a few pints. ..It sounds like you need a few too
Also ‘pennys’ had already been acquired by a British company before it entered the British market, the terms of its agreement with US store JC PENNY was that it wouldnt use the name ‘pennys’ anywhere but Ireland, in return JC PENNY wouldn’t use a range of other trademarks including Finefare and quinnsworth also acquired by ‘Associated British Foods”, it appears to have only been an Irish company for its first 10 years unfortunately.
So will Spanish women now respond to compliments on their outfit, “oh gracias, Primark…”?!
Ahh nothing on its flagship store here ! Marystreet.
Why is it a different name in Ireland?
According to this: http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/penneys-business-1957209-Mar2015/ JC Penney had the rights to the name in the UK when they went there and it stuck everywhere outside Ireland.
Someone’s getting free pairs of Penney knickers for this story…
still no shop in tallaght
what is with the love affair for Primark? It is not like it is an irish company! Unless we are claiming Associated British Foods as one of our own?
It’s Primarco now !
You obviously know nothing about primark
Or indeed Associated British Foods
Primark /pennies > Louis Vuitton, dolce & gabanna, Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss.
Your Mani
We could all be this successful if we had slave labor and paid no tax.
Heading to Madrid for the weekend. Just when you think getting a kid free weekend away with the lads couldn’t get any better, Penneys goes and opens a store there
nice store. I assume everyone involved in making and selling these clothes gets to work in a similar environment.
Penny’s is full of cheap clothes that don’t last pissing time. To top it all off, they are made in poor countries by badly paid ‘employees’ in factories that aren’t built to proper standards which collapse, killing thousands and leaving many orphans. But that doesn’t even stop from shopping there. It’s a sad world.
Sauce for all that vitriol?
DO’B is going to take over penny’s so that the pounds can look after themselves.
Who makes the clothes that Primark/Penny’s retail ?
i do in my shed
their suppliers I’d say in Far / Middle East
Opening in Toulouse in January!
Clearly worth a pretty penny
Everyweekend in Brussels you have to queue up just to get in to Primark #madness
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