Primark plays up its Irish origins on US debut in Boston

Primark is pulling out all the stops for its first US store opening on Thursday.

The Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, a Democrat of Irish-American descent, will open the store playing on Primark’s own Dublin origins.

The historic, 77,000 square foot, four-storey building in the heart of Boston was designed by the same architect as Selfridges on Oxford Street, Daniel Burnham, and is about the same size as Primark’s Tottenham Court Road store.

“There are many similarities to our range in Europe but we have taken a view on what will work in the US,” said John Bason, finance director of Primark’s owner Associated British Foods.

“We hope to get more right than we get wrong but we also expect to be learning in the early days.”

ABF already has another six stores set to open on the US east coast, most of them towards the end of the coming financial year.

While it is entering a market littered with British retail casualties like Marks & Spencer and Tesco, but it has also seen its more direct rivals, like Spain’s Zara and Sweden’s H&M, thrive in the US.

At the same time, Primark appeared to fare much better than its competitors in the last three months.

While several fashion chains have reported poor August sales, Primark’s three months to the end of this week were “strong” with like-for-like sales up 4%. After the warm weather start to the year in autumn 2014 and a cool spring in 2015, like-for-like sales for the year were up 1% and including new openings rose 13%.

ABF confirmed that thanks to a sizeable drop in profits from its sugar business and a £30 million hit on foreign-exchange movements, profits would be lower than last year’s but in line with City forecasts.