Primark owner sees no risk from Brexit

Brexit holds no fears for Primark owner Associated British Foods, it declared today despite the fact almost half the fashion chain’s sales are now in Europe.

“We wouldn’t be greatly affected by Brexit,” said chief executive George Weston who, however, declined to give his personal view on the question. “It’s the nature of the business that Primark is as close to its local markets — here, in Europe and in the US — as we can make it with separate supply chains in each region.

“We have relatively little cross-border trading between the UK and the rest of the EU. The same is true for our grocery businesses which depend on high volume, low margin goods delivered to local markets.”