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Primark to launch home delivery in Britain, open stores in Saudi Arabia, Mexico
Primark’s parent company Associated British Foods delivered a trading update on Thursday and had big news. “Primark will be offering home delivery in Great Britain,” it said, while also announcing that it’s set to open in Saudi Arabia and Mexico
But first that home delivery news. With its fast turnover of budget-priced products, Primark has long resisted trading via anywhere but its stores. Yet the success of its click & collect offer, the huge potential of online trading and the challenges of the market at present have clearly changed its mind
ABF CEO George Weston said that “Primark has made significant progress in building its digital capabilities and will continue this through both growing click & collect and by offering home delivery in Great Britain in the future. There is now an opportunity for incremental and profitable growth through this channel
The company said Primark's digital strategy “is to deliver incremental growth while complementing its store-led model
And to enable the home delivery proposition, it has now acquired the lease of Boohoo/Debenhams’ highly-automated fulfilment facility in Sheffield in a £90 million deal
It’s a massive deal for the business and it must be hoping that the sluggish sales it has seen in the UK in recent periods can be energised by this new move, for which it hasn’t yet shared the timetable
Patchy performance around the world
As to its trading update, Weston added that “actions to strengthen Primark's customer proposition have continued at pace. Our priority focus areas, the UK and womenswear, continued to outperform our other markets and categories. Trading in continental Europe remained challenging, where actions to strengthen our customer proposition are at an earlier stage. The recent launch of our 'Iconic Value' campaign is a strategic investment in price and price perception and the initial customer reaction has been encouraging
Looking at the numbers, for the fourth quarter (which still has a few days to run), Primark sales should rise 2% in both Q4 and the full year. But like-for-like (LFL) sales should be down by 3% for the quarter and 2.6% for the year with growth being driven by new store openings
In the UK and Ireland, the company expects sales growth of 1% in the quarter and 2% in the year but LFL sales for the quarter should be up only 0.4% and only 0.5% for the year
It was upbeat given that in the UK it continued to gain market share in a market that declined in Q4. While trading in the quarter started strongly, “sales were then impacted by the prolonged hot weather, which delayed the seasonal purchasing catalyst for autumn/weather clothing. Trading was stronger when the weather cooled towards the end of the quarter. Click & collect sales continued to grow well in the UK
In continental Europe, it's expecting sales to fall by 1% in both the quarter and the year and LFL they'll drop by over 4% for both periods
European consumer confidence remains weak, but initiatives are in place to “sharpen price and price perception, improve our in-store execution and increase our digital marketing, and we have increased our focus on our key target customer base”. In its largest European markets, Spain, France and Italy, it increased its investment in marketing, building on its learnings from the UK
The US looks much stronger with increases of 11% and 13% in the quarter of the year on a total basis, but that’s because the company is opening new stores at pace. It didn’t give an LFL comparison
It said US underlying trading “was challenging in a difficult consumer environment and Q4 2025 was a strong comparator period. However, we continued to refine our proposition to meet the needs of our target customer
This included changes to space allocation in stores as it increasingly localise the product offer in the US. The recently opened Manhattan store performed well, with good execution of six other new store openings in Q4 taking Primark to a total of 47 stores in the US
Meanwhile, its franchise business, which currently comprises three stores in Dubai and one in Kuwait, continued to perform strongly in Q4. It has extended its agreement with Alshaya Group to now include the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the first store expected to open in spring 2027. It also signed a franchise agreement with El Puerto de Liverpool to open stores in the Mexican market
Heading in the right direction
Overall, the company was upbeat and said that “despite a challenging consumer environment in most markets, we continued to strengthen Primark's customer proposition. In July, we launched our 'Iconic Value' campaign across all markets and categories, which introduced new, lower prices across hundreds of items in our autumn/winter range as we continue to redefine value in Primark. The initial volume reaction has been positive, including key lines in nightwear, leisure and performance. We expect to build momentum as our full range of autumn/winter product lands in stores over the coming weeks
“We continued to strengthen our product offer, including more co-ordinated ranges, new collaborations such as 'By Coleen', improvements to quality and style, more streamlined options and clearer price visibility in stores. We also increased investment in marketing and digital engagement, including marketing campaigns in key European markets. Womenswear, which has been our primary focus for investment and activations, continued to outperform our other departments in all markets
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