Primark
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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Ireland |
| Number of locations | 232[1] |
| Key people | Arthur Ryan, Chairman Paul Marchant, Chief Executive John Lyttle, Chief Operating Officer Ben Mansfield, Sales Director Breege O'Donoghue, HR, PR & Advertising Director Aidan Shields, Chief Financial Officer |
| Products | Womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, footwear, accessories, lingerie and homeware |
| Revenue | £2,730m (Financial Year 2009/2010) |
| Employees | 36,000 |
| Parent | Associated British Foods |
Primark is a clothing retailer, operating over 232 stores in Ireland (where it is branded as Penneys), the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium.[2] The company's main headquarters are in Ireland, and it is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods (ABF). When Primark first opened in June 1969 (in Mary Street, Dublin) it became apparent that more stores were required and another four were added to the chain.
Further expansion and success in Ireland dictated the move to the United Kingdom, where in 1972 four stores were opened in more suburban areas of England. The first high-street stores were Derby and Bristol.
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[edit] Market position
Primark is known for selling clothes at the budget end of the market. The company's success is based on sourcing supply cheaply, making clothes with simple designs and fabrics, only making them in the most popular sizes and buying stock in huge bulks and varieties.
[edit] Primark's own brands
All of the company's merchandise is made specifically for the company and as such Primark has its own brand names. Within both menswear and ladieswear there is one main brand name that supplies most of the fashion labels, which are added too by other suppliers.
Ladieswear Brands
- Atmosphere — Ladies fashion & formal wear
- Denim Co. — Ladies denim
- Limited Edition — Ladies fashion (available only from flagship stores)
Ladies Underwear Lines
- Secret Possessions — lingerie & nightwear
- Primark Essentials — underwear
- Love 2 Lounge - slippers, hot water bottles etc.
Menswear Lines
- Cedarwood State — Mens fashion
- Butler & Webb — Mens formal wear
- Backswing — Sportswear
- Cedarwood State Active (CS Active) — Mens sportswear
- Denim Co. — Men's denim
- Primark Essentials — underwear & nightware
Childrenswear Lines
- Early Days — babywear (newborn-23 months)
- Primark Essentials — underwear
- Girl 2 Girl — young girlswear (2-7 years)
- Young Dimension (YD) — older girlswear (7-13 years)
- Rebel — boyswear
- Denim Co. — Children's denim
Accessories Lines
- Opia — Accessories
- Opia Girls — Accessories for girls
Other Lines
- Primark Beauty — Cosmetics
- Primark Home — Home items
Primark does also stock products from other, well known brands. It stocks haribo sweets and assorted clothes & toys from companies such as Disney & Warner Brothers.
[edit] Criticism
[edit] Working practices
In 2006, Primark joined the Ethical Trading Initiative, a collaborative organization bringing together businesses, trades unions and NGOs to work on labour rights issues in their supply chains.[3] ETI members commit to working towards the implementation of a code of conduct based on the International Labour Organisation's core conventions.
On 16 June 2011 the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee (ESC) published its findings into a Panorama programme[4] 'Primark: On the Rack', broadcast in June 2008. This programme was an undercover investigative documentary examining poor working conditions in Indian factories supplying Primark. Although Primark subsequently stopped doing business with the Indian supplier, the ESC concluded that footage in the programme was 'more likely than not' to have been fabricated.[5] The ESC directed the BBC to make an on-air apology and to ensure that the programme was not repeated or sold to other broadcasters. Primark created a specific website to deal with the issues around the programme.[6]
In December 2008, the UK charity War on Want launched a new report, Fashion Victims II, that showed terms and conditions had not improved in Bangladeshi factories supplying Primark, two years after the charity first visited them.[7]
On 9 January 2009, a supplier was forced by ETI to remove its branding from Primark stores and websites following a BBC/The Observer investigation into the employment practices. The investigation alleged use of illegal immigrant labour which was paid less than the UK legal minimum wage.[8]
[edit] Stores
The largest Primark store is located on Market Street, Manchester, England occupying 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) of retail space, spread over three floors. This store superseded a Liverpool branch in 2008 after TK Maxx moved from the basement floor to the Arndale Centre.
| Country | Number of Stores[2] |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom |
156 |
 Ireland |
38 |
 Spain |
22 |
 Portugal |
5 |
 Germany |
7 |
 Belgium |
1 |
 Netherlands |
3 |
In July 2010 the 200th primark store opened in The Mall Blackburn, as part of its £66 million new development.
In September 2010, the first Primark store opened in Gran Canaria (Las Arenas, Las Palmas). Primark opened its second store in the Netherlands (Hoofddorp) and also in Gran Canaria (El Mirador) in November 2010. In December 2010 the third store opened in Gelsenkirchen (Germany). The biggest Primark of Europe opened in Hannover (Germany) in October 2011. In December 2011 the third store in Zaandam (The Netherlands). In December 2011 saw the opening of another store in "The Larios" shopping Mall in Malaga, Spain.
New Store Openings are as follows:
Berlin Steglitz, Germany (March 2012)
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Germany (Early 2012)
Bielefeld, Germany (2012)
Chelmsford, UK (August 2012)
Innsbruck, Austria (September 2012)
Frankfurt, Germany (Autumn 2012)
Peterborough, UK (November 2012)
Karlsruhe, Germany (End 2012)
Dusseldorf, Germany (Early 2013)
Salon de Provence, France (2013)
Vienna, Austria (TBC)
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b http://www.primark.co.uk/page.aspx?pointerid=eb44df4565934edca627dac6ec12145a
- ^ Primark joins Ethical Trading Initiative - Press Release - ETI
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/june/panorama.shtml
- ^ Revoir, Paul (2011-06-17). "Shamed BBC could lose prestigious TV award over ‘faked footage of child labour' in Primark Panorama expose". Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004298/BBC-lose-prestigious-TV-award-faked-footage-child-labour-Primark-Panorama-expose.html.
- ^ http://www.primarkresponse.com/panorama/
- ^ http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/supermarkets/fashion-victims/inform/16360-fashion-victims-ii
- ^ McDougall, Dan (2009-01-11). "Primark in storm over conditions at UK supplier". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/11/primark-ethical-business-living. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
- Alam, Khorshed; M. Hearson (2006-12-08). Fashion Victims (pdf), War on Want, Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
- Kehoe, Ian. "The very private Ryan", Sunday Business Post, 2006-08-01. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
- Primark Stores Ltd, www.primark.co.uk
- The Independent Newspaper, UK, Dec 2005/ July 2007
- Primark vindicated of BBC TV Panorama accusations [2]
[edit] External links
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