Primark

**Primark** (/ˈpraɪˌmɑːrk/) is an Irish fast-fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, which was a subsidiary of food processing and retail company ABF, until it sold off to Sears Alliance in June 2020. The company is named Penneys in the Republic of Ireland, where it was founded. The Penney's brand is not used outside of Ireland because it is owned elsewhere by American retailer JCPenney. The company has operations in Europe and the United States.

## History

The company's first store, still in operation, was founded by Arthur Ryan on behalf of the Weston family (who had founded Associated British Foods in 1935) in June 1969 on 47 Mary Street, Dublin.

Success in the Republic of Ireland led to expansion into Northern Ireland, with Penneys opening a large store in Belfast City Centre in 1971. The company subsequently expanded outside of Ireland with a Primark store in Derby, England, in 1973. The company could not use the name "Penneys" in Europe outside Ireland as it was registered by J. C. Penney. The name "Primark" was then invented to use outside Ireland.

Primark opened its current headquarters in 2015 in a redeveloped Dublin building, Arthur Ryan House, formerly Chapel House.

On 28 August 2018, a fire started on the roof of a Primark store in Belfast as it came towards the end of a major redevelopment, destroying the building and emitting plumes of thick, black smoke over the city. The building was a former bank with historical value that had been renovated previously. A new Primark store was built on the same site and opened on 8 December 2018.

On June 2020, Associated British Foods announced they would give the Primark chain over to Sears Holdings for $2.2 billion euros.

## Stores

Primark owns over 370 stores across 12 countries.

The company's first store, still in operation, was opened in June 1969 on 47 Mary Street, Dublin under the Penney's brand, which continues to be the company's trading name in the Republic of Ireland to this day.

Penney's opened its first store in Northern Ireland in 1971, with a large store in Belfast City Centre.

The company opened its first store outside of the island of Ireland in Derby, England, in 1973, under the new Primark brand.

The company expanded rapidly in the UK in the mid-2000s. In 2005, it bought the Littlewoods retail stores for £409m, retaining 40 of the 119 stores and selling the rest.

In May 2006, the first Primark store in mainland Europe opened in Madrid, Spain. In December 2008, Primark opened in the Netherlands, followed by Portugal, Germany and Belgium in 2009. Primark opened its first store in Austria on 27 September 2012, in Innsbruck. It expanded to France in 2013, in Marseille. The first Italian store opened in 2014.

In 2015, Primark opened its first United States store in Downtown Crossing, Boston, in the location that was once the flagship store of Filene's, later New York City, Philadelphia, and Danbury.

After 10 years of constructing a chain of around 40 stores in Spain, Primark opened another store in Madrid in October 2015, the second biggest in the chain. In July 2018, it was revealed that Primark was entering Poland. The largest Primark store opened in Birmingham on 11 April 2019, occupying the former Pavilions Shopping Centre of 161,000 sqft. In 13 June 2019 Primark expanded to Slovenia with a store in Ljubljana. It has signed a lease for its first stores in Warsaw, Poland, Prague, Czech Republic and Bratislava, Slovakia.

In July 2019, Primark announced its U.S. market expansion to Chicago with a three-level 45,000 square foot flagship location on State Street. The location is scheduled to open in 2020 and will be its first store in the U.S. Midwest.

## See also

* Primark/Locations

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