DUBLIN-BASED value retailer Primark has signed a deal with Irish investment group Quinlan Private to open a 3,000sq m outlet at the upmarket Diagonal Mar shopping centre in Barcelona.
The move is yet another signal of how the Arthur Ryan-led retailer, which operates in Ireland under the Penneys brand, is defying the recession.
This will be Primark’s first store in Catalonia. Diagonal Mar opened in 2001 and is the biggest retail centre in this region of Spain and one of the biggest in the country.
No value was placed on the contract. Quinlan Private is led by Irish financier Derek Quinlan.
Primark already operates 187 stores across Europe including Ireland, Holland, Spain and the UK. It launched in Spain in 2006 and now has 11 stores in the country.
Although it has a reputation for offering cut-price items of clothing, the company has opened stores in upmarket locations, including the Dundrum Town Centre on Dublin’s southside.
The Diagonal Mar shopping centre has about 200 shops comprising 87,000sq m of retail space, a multistorey car park and an 18-screen cinema.
Commenting on the deal, Fergus Farrell, a director of Quinlan Private, said: “Since acquiring Diagonal Mar, our primary objective has been to enhance its retail and leisure offering. We have recently completed a refurbishment of the shopping centre ... to enhance returns. Following the addition of Primark to our list of retailers, we are now in the process of securing further leading fashion tenants for Diagonal Mar.”
Primark, which is owned by Associated British Foods, last month reported a 10 per cent increase in its operating profit in the six months to the end of February to £122 million.
After a better than expected Christmas, revenues increased 18 per cent to £1.06 billion. This was described as a “first class performance” by the company in the context of the recession, which has hammered retailers in Britain and Ireland.
But chief executive George Weston warned that operating margins may fall in the second-half of its financial year due to extra costs from a newly-opened distribution centre in England.
