Associated British Foods retail division revenues worldwide 2007-2021

As the name suggests, Associated British Foods (ABF) is primarily a food processing, grocery, and agriculture business, which started off as a bakery. However, since 1969, ABF has had its own retail division, Primark, which offers affordable clothing. Over the years, Primark steadily grew and has now become a leading value clothing brand. From the fiscal year 2007 to 2019, Primark’s revenue consistently grew year on year, and by 2019 the business generated a revenue of 7.79 billion pounds. In the couple of years since then, however, Primark’s revenue has fallen. In 2021, revenue had decreased to approximately 5.6 billion British pounds.

Global presence

The first Primark store opened in Dublin in 1969, under the name of Penney’s. The store enjoyed considerable success and started to expand into other countries. The company now has approximately 400 stores located in 14 countries across Europe and the rest of the world, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland (still trading as 'Penneys'), Portugal, the United States, and most recently, Poland, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. Primark also has hundreds of supplier factories around the world, mainly concentrated in Asia.

UK popularity

The UK is Primark’s primary market, where it is, according to some metrics, the most popular value apparel brand in the UK, ranking above other value apparel competitors such as TK Maxx and supermarket own brands, like George at Asda. Primark’s popularity is underlined by the fact that it had the most customers of all men’s clothes stores in Great Britain in 2020.