Arthur Ryan obituary: Legendary retailer and Penneys founder

Arthur Ryan

Born: July 19th, 1935

Died: July 8th, 2019

Arthur Ryan, who has died at the age of 83 following a short illness, will be remembered as an outstanding Irish retailer, the founder and chairman of the Penneys/Primark empire which this year marks its 50th anniversary. From modest beginnings in Mary Street with a “pile them high and sell them cheap” formula, Ryan masterminded the phenomenal growth of the cut-price fashion chain into a major international player which now has 372 stores in 12 countries and some 80,000 employees.

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Ryan, from Clontarf, was one of the three children of a Cork insurance salesman and a nurse and spent his early years in Cork before moving back to Dublin and attending school at Synge Street. In the 1950s he moved to the UK to work for London fashion wholesaler Carr & McDonald where he met his first wife. Rose.

He returned to Ireland to work for Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt and following an approach by Garfield and Galen Weston of ABF (Associated British Foods), the food and retail conglomerate owned by the Canadian Weston family (who also own Brown Thomas), he was hired to set up Penneys in 1969 in Mary Street with finance director Paddy Prior and a startup fund of £50,000. Ryan’s belief that offering fashion at rock bottom prices for the under 35s would be a winner was the starting point of what was to become a phenomenal success story.

With a tight-knit leadership of what became known as the “Gang of Four” – Breege O’Donoghue , Paddy Prior and Seamus Halford – Ryan steered the company steadily in the right direction, opening its first stores in the UK in Aberdeen in 1973 and in Derby the following year.

“He could see that the business could travel beyond the coast of Ireland once it had a solid foundation here before moving into the continent, and in those days for a small country of four million that was visionary,” said an executive who worked with him at the time. Known for his prodigious attention to detail and his ability to drive a hard bargain, he was a hands-on manager who insisted on visiting each of his stores twice monthly and prowling the floors. His rules were clear – never buy what you like yourself and if it isn’t selling, get rid of it quick.

Expanding

During the 70s and 80s, 44 stores in the UK were acquired from blue chip brands such as One Up and C&A. However, 2005 was a big year for Ryan and the Primark team, led by the dynamic Breege O’Donoghue (the name Primark was adopted for trading purposes outside Ireland because of litigation fears from US retail chain JC Penney). This was when the company acquired 120 Littlewoods stores for £409 million, expanding Primark’s geographic reach in the UK, a move that made it the focus of considerable media interest.

There were stampedes when their flagship opened on Oxford Street and interest in its fashion grew. When the Telegraph featured a military jacket with the caption “Is this Prada? No, it’s Primark and it’s £8” followed by further approval in Vogue, the Daily Mail and the Observer, comments such as “thank heaven for Primark” and “high fashion looks from a low-budget store” whetted the public attitude for its offerings. Highly controlled fashion imagery further promoted its fashion credibility and consumer appeal for both men and women.

By 2012 Primark was operating in eight countries in Europe with more than 43,000 employees and a £356 million operating profit. The combination of increasingly trend-driven items (while still selling a million pairs of socks a day, such volume allowing the company to buy at competitive prices) kept it newsworthy in terms of fashion while also raising questions about its buying policy and manufacturing in low-cost countries.

Each store opening was always preceded by forensic research and networking initiatives with local communities carried out with well polished military precision. The first foray in France, for example, was in Marseilles in 2013 with crowds descending on the 62,000sq ft store attracted by faux fur gilets, metallic dresses and puffa jackets. Paris followed after that.

Inspirational

Described by colleagues as inspirational, dogged and determined, Ryan was also fundamentally an intensely shy man who avoided public exposure, rarely gave interviews and was passionate about his privacy. It was said that he was fearful of kidnapping, kept his home in Lansdowne Road well protected and always worked with a security detail, only revealing to his closest aides his daily schedule.

He liked dropping into stores without being recognised. “He liked that cloak [of anonymity], said a friend. “But he was also great fun, a great mimic and a great boss who valued hard work and was good at delegation. He worked hard and he played hard.”

After its breakneck expansion across Europe, Primark’s ambitions as volume retailers inevitably focused on the US. Their first flagship store, which opened in Boston in September 2015, met with considerable success and has driven further expansion stateside.

There are now nine stores trading in the US with a further two on the horizon. In one of his last public appearances, Ryan attended the Boston opening with his wife, former singer Alma Carroll, whom he married in 1983 after his divorce. The couple have a daughter, Jessica, a mother of three who has a beauty business in Sandymount.

Tragedy

Voted the most influential figure in British high street fashion by Drapers in 2006, he was honoured with a lifetime achievement award for outstanding contribution to retail in 2010 at the Retail Week Award in London. Tragedy struck the family six years ago when Ryan lost his eldest son, Barry, his grandson Barry Davis Ryan (20) and Davis Ryan’s girlfriend Niamh O’Connor (20) in a freak drowning accident outside Baltimore in west Cork.

The Mary Street store that houses the company’s international headquarters is now called Arthur Ryan house in recognition of his legacy and legendary status in the world of fashion and remains a Dublin landmark. Arthur Ryan is survived by his wife, Alma, his daughter Jessica and three children from his first marriage, Colin, Arthur and Alison.