Primark follows M&S and Next with bumper Christmas

Primark has turn into the newest retailer to defy warnings of doom and gloom on the High Street.

Bosses cheered ‘strong trading’ over the festive interval regardless of strain on family budgets because it echoed the success of Marks & Spencer and Next.

A second style vary from singer Rita Ora – that includes metallic and sequin partywear – flew off the cabinets.

These merchandise helped Primark rake in gross sales of £3.4billion over the 16 weeks to January 6, up 7.9 per cent on a 12 months earlier. 

A glittery gray blazer from the popstar’s assortment for £32 and a humble £7 half-zip fleece proved notably standard.

Top vendor: A second style vary from singer Rita Ora (pictured)– that includes metallic and sequin partywear – flew off the cabinets

Strong gross sales of informal garments have continued even after Covid lockdown restrictions have been lifted, bosses stated.

Primark conceded it suffered a ‘slow start’ to the crucial ‘golden quarter’ as demand for winter garments was hit by unseasonably heat climate in September and October.

But after a sluggish autumn, enterprise picked up, with consumers desirous to get glammed up over Christmas. Partywear gross sales have been 4 per cent greater than in 2022.

In the UK, the shop’s market share rose to a file excessive of seven.1 per cent this winter. 

The style chain’s cheery replace adopted optimism from bosses at Next and M&S, which each posted booming festive gross sales earlier this month.

M&S chief govt Stuart Machin, who has overseen a exceptional turnaround on the division retailer, stated it was coming into 2024 with a ‘spring in our step’. 

And boss of Next, Lord Wolfson, stated the patron atmosphere appeared to seem ‘more benign than it has for a number of years’.

Group revenues at Primark’s proprietor Associated British Foods (ABF), whose meals and elements manufacturers embody Kingsmill bread, Ryvita crackers and Twinings tea, rose 5.4 per cent to £6.9billion within the 16 week interval.

ABF finance director Eoin Tonge, who helped M&S to get again into style in his earlier position, stated ‘there is still a mixed picture when it comes to the consumer’ however buying and selling was ‘holding up well’.

‘I am relatively confident that inflation is going in the right way,’ he stated, pointing to power and meals costs cooling.

Prices will even ‘eventually’ start to fall this calendar 12 months, in accordance with Tonge, who added ‘you are seeing a little bit of that already’. 

In current months, Primark has elevated reductions for consumers and it slashed the costs of a whole lot of kids’s garments final summer time. 

But Tonge warned that retailers are nonetheless staring down a mountain of value will increase this 12 months.

‘National Living Wage going up by the level it is going up is a significant burden and we shouldn’t underestimate that,‘ he warned.

Echoing other High Street bosses, he called for Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to intervene to help businesses at the Budget on March 6.

Retailers are set to see a £470million hike in business rates this spring, according to lobby group, the British Retail Consortium.

Yesterday it called for rates to be ‘brought back to a more sustainable level’.