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UK spotlight: Opportunities in our biggest market

From the 2024 Annual Report

2024 marked 50 years of Primark on the great British high street. The UK is Primark’s biggest market, with 194 stores and over 30,000 retail colleagues, and it continues to create significant opportunities for us.

While our business is growing internationally, Primark in the UK remains well-established as a retail anchor on the high street. This is evidenced by our £100m investment in our UK store estate this year.

Our stores are well-placed to meet shopping demand through our high sales densities, wide product ranges and broad mix of shopping destinations nationwide. Shoppers continue to prioritise value, enabling a highly profitable market position.

Primark is directly responsible for driving footfall to high streets and retail parks, in turn creating a ripple effect of economic growth and consumer spending for wider industries. Research carried out by Public First and published in October 2024 showed that 2.3 million people each week cite Primark as the main reason for visiting their local high street.

Opening day queue at Primark’s new store in Bury St Edmunds, 6 March 2024 Opening day queue at Primark’s new store in Bury St Edmunds, 6 March 2024

Primark continues to respond to widespread consumer demand, even in shopping locations where we do not have an existing presence – we receive hundreds of requests to open stores each year. This financial year, we opened new stores in Bury St Edmunds and Stockton-on-Tees, which both delivered significant queues on opening day and sales that surpassed expected retail targets.

The UK offers an ideal testbed for physical and digital innovation before we roll out new concepts globally, including investments to improve store efficiency such as expanding our self-service checkouts. As we continue to roll out Click & Collect into all our stores in England, Scotland and Wales this will further drive consumer footfall and increase access to wider ranges, giving people more reasons to visit us.

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