Associated British Foods said today its Primark retail chain's like-for-like sales rose about 4 per cent in its first-quarter over Christmas as trading beat its own expectations despite the economic slowdown.
In the Republic Primark operates under the Pennys brand and it has 36 outlets.
Associated British Foods said today that its Primark retail chain's like-for-like sales rose about 4 per cent in its first-quarter over Christmas as trading beat its own expectations despite the economic slowdown.
The discount fashion retailer, which is investigating claims one of its UK suppliers used illegal immigrants paid below the legal minimum wage, saw total sales up 18 percent in the 16 weeks to January 3rd, driven by new stores and underlying sales growth.
AB Foods Plc issued a first-quarter trading statement for the entire group on Thursday, but attention was focused on the clothing chain, as the stores exceeded the group's expectations over the key Christmas period with "very good" like-for-like trading.
AB Foods said the group's first-quarters revenues rose 21 per cent driven by Primark's sales growth.
"Primark's performance compares well with last year's 4 per cent like-for-like sales growth, and in the first-quarter, it was again around 4 per cent," AB Foods Finance Director John Bason said in an interview after the update.
Primark, which accounts for nearly one-third of group profit and has 187 stores in Britain, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands, said its total sales for the first quarter rose 18 per cent with all of the increase coming from volume growth with no price rises.
Primark, which is Britain's second-biggest clothing retailer after Marks & Spencer in terms of sales volumes, hopes to add about five stores in its financial year to September 2009.
AB Foods, 55 per cent owned by the family of chief executive George Weston, said it was still budgeting for flat net earnings for the year to September 2009 which it warned of in November 2008 due to investments in sugar and Primark.
"Overall, a positive update with the stand-out being the "very good" like-for-like performance at Primark," said Citi analyst Jeff Stent. AB Foods shares dipped 0.3 per cent to 673 pence by 9am in a UK stock market off around 1.2 per cent.