Primark sales boosted by warm weather and new stores

Primark says it will be opening many new stores across Europe in the coming years

Revenues at the budget fashion retailer Primark have grown sharply thanks to new stores and warmer weather, owner Associated British Foods has said.

Stripping out the impact of currency movements, revenue at Primark for the 16 weeks to 21 June was up 22% compared with a year earlier.

For the financial year to date, sales were up 17%, thanks in part to an 11% rise in shop-floor selling space.

This helped to offset a big drop in revenues from AB Foods' sugar business.

The company blamed lower sugar prices, weak European sales and low production in North China for the 20% fall.

It added that currency fluctuations could hit overall profits for the group by £50m this year, but it still expected adjusted earnings per share to be higher than last year.

Strong pipeline

Primark's strong performance was "driven by like-for-like [sales] growth, a further increase in retail selling space and superior sales densities in our new stores," AB Foods said.

"Strong like-for-like sales growth benefitted from the warm weather, especially compared to the very cold months of March and April last year."

Primark now has 275 stores, with total retail space of 10 million square feet, up from nine million a year ago.

"We have a very strong pipeline of new stores in Europe extending over a number of years," the company said.