Primark makes its mark in Spain as turnover hits €1.17bn

Fashion retailer Primark’s Spanish expansion is proving a success, according to the company’s latest sales figures.

The firm’s Spanish turnover was €1.17 billion between September 2014 and the end of August 2015. This is a 20 per cent increase on the same period a year earlier. Discounting €248 million of those sales, which were made to the Irish company’s own headquarters, the increase was 16 per cent.

Primark established its first stores in Spain in 2006 and has since expanded across the country, defying an economic crisis, to establish itself as a major force and challenge local giants.

With the country only recently emerging from a double-dip recession which saw unemployment peak at 27 per cent, the retailer’s low-cost products have been popular with Spaniards seeking a bargain.

Biggest outlet

The latest sales figures do not include turnover at Primark’s biggest outlet in Spain, a 133,000sq ft store on Madrid’s Gran Vía, the commercial hub of the capital. Opened by Irish Ambassador to Spain

David Cooney

in October 2015, it was the company’s 41st branch in the country and a move away from Primark’s traditional territory of upmarket shopping centres.

The Gran Vía store appeared to reflect Primark’s ambition to vie for supremacy with local fashion giants, such as Zara.

Inditex, which owns Zara and other franchises such as Bershka, Stradivarius and Pull & Bear, remains the leading Spanish retailer, with an annual turnover of about €4 billion. However, the latest figures show the Irish company's Spanish turnover has overtaken that of local competitors Mango and Cortefiel, as well as Swedish giant H&M, putting it in second place overall.

Primark is now planning to open another large store, in the old headquarters of BBVA bank in the Basque city of Bilbao.

Owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), Primark was founded by Arthur Ryan, who opened the first store, on Dublin's Mary Street in 1969. It expanded steadily in Ireland – where it is known as Penneys – and Britain over the next three decades, before moving into Europe, with Spain becoming its largest continental interest.