Primark is celebrating half a century on the British high street, 50 years to the day since it first opened its doors on 26 September 1974 at Babington Lane, Derby, the site of the first Primark store in Great Britain.
Reflecting on the milestone, Kari Rodgers, UK retail director for Primark, said: “Over the last 50 years, British high streets and style have changed a lot and Primark has been there every step of the way. While we’ve evolved through the decades, our mission of helping people look and feel good for less remains as relevant today as it was then. We’ve paved the way for great quality, affordable fashion for everyone and I’m so grateful for the loyalty our amazing colleagues and customers have shown us. To still be proudly on the high street and growing is testament to them and we’re excited for what the next 50 years brings.”
To mark the anniversary, Primark is hosting a special celebration for customers and colleagues past and present in Derby, back where it all began. Across the country, Primark store windows will feature images of the brand through the ages.
Half a century on the high street
Having started life here with just one store in Derby 50 years ago, Primark today has 185 stores across Britain, employs more than 30,000 colleagues and serves millions of customers every week, making clothing affordable and accessible to everyone.
It was this founding mission that drove founder Arthur Ryan to open Primark’s very first store, Penneys, in Dublin in 1969, which remains the Irish brand name to this day.
As Penneys won the hearts of Irish shoppers, Mr Ryan saw an opportunity in the British market and took over a grocery store Fine Fare, owned by its parent company ABF. Although the name changed to Primark (which remains one of the company’s most asked questions), the store had the same aim of offering women’s, men’s and kids’ clothing at unbeatable prices.
From day one it was a hit, with shoppers queuing around the block: Opening offers included* women’s tweed coats for £9.50, printed crepe blouses for 99p and briefs for 25p. Across menswear, V-neck Shetland sweaters were sold for £2.85, poly-cotton shirts for 99p and socks for 23p. Kidswear highlights included slacks for 99p, ‘car coats’ for £1.99 and pinafore dresses for £1.65.
Things quickly grew from there. Stores in Bristol and Northampton followed shortly after, before the first store in Scotland opened in Hamilton in 1975 – a store that remains Primark’s smallest UK store today – and Newport in Wales the following year. Ten years later in 1986, Primark finally arrived in London with its Woolwich store.
The 90s saw sharp growth as it moved into new stores acquired from other retailers including C&A, BHS and Co-op Living. But it was in 2005 when it took over Littlewoods, adding 41 new Primark stores, that it became a household name and regular fixture on high streets and in major towns and cities nationwide.
During the 2000s, Primark developed a cult following among fashionistas, as it became the go-to destination where shoppers could pick up the latest high fashion looks at high street prices. It first graced the fashion pages of Vogue in 2005 with its sell-out military jacket. In 2007, the opening of Primark on Oxford Street cemented its place in British high street fashion, with thousands of shoppers queuing on opening day. A second flagship store opened at the other end of Oxford Street, near Tottenham Court Road, five years later.
The Primark way
Primark has always been a big believer in physical stores, and today Primark is located across high streets, shopping centres and retail parks across the country. A recent survey showed 2.3 million people said that visiting Primark was their main reason for visiting their local high street every week.**
Over the years, many of these stores have grown into true retail destinations offering a broad array of services and experiences to customers. Today many larger stores have beauty studios and nail salons, barbers, vintage clothing concessions and a wide choice of destination cafes – including Tasty by Greggs, Disney and other popular character cafes. There’s no better, or bigger, example of this than officially the world’s largest store, Primark Birmingham High Street. Formerly the site of a shopping centre, since it opened in 2019, it has held the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest retail fashion store at 160,000 sq. ft.
While most Primark headlines perhaps focus on its trends and fashion, today more than 50 per cent of Primark’s clothes are everyday basics: essential items that families and shoppers choose Primark’s value for time and time again such as underwear, jeans, tees, sweatshirts, and of course pyjamas and socks.
Primark has always been about choice and offering something for everybody. To help offer its British customers even more choice, while keeping local stores at the heart of it all, since 2022 it has been trialling – and now rolling out nationwide – a Click & Collect service. This means, when it’s available everywhere by the end of next year, all customers will have the full Primark ranges at their fingertips, for collection in their local store.
As it now reaches this golden anniversary, Primark continues to expand and invest for growth. Earlier this year, Primark announced a £100million investment across its UK store estate, including new stores, extensions and refurbishments: So far this year, it has opened new stores in Bury St Edmunds, Teesside, significant extensions in Gateshead and Westfield Stratford and two relocated stores in Bradford and High Wycombe in 24 hours in early September.
And all of this while the international footprint of Primark has grown beyond imagination from when it first crossed the Irish Sea 50 years ago: Primark today has more than 450 stores across 17 countries including Spain, France, Germany, the USA and, as of this year, Hungary, employing more than 80,000 colleagues worldwide.
Timeline
- 1969 – Our first ever store opens in Dublin, Ireland, trading as Penneys. This is still the name above the 37 stores we have in Ireland today.
- 1974 – Our first store in England opens in Derby. Today, we have 191 stores across the UK, our largest market.
- 2006 – Hola España! our first store opens in Madrid, Spain where we now operate 56 stores.
- 2006 – We join the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a leading alliance of companies, trade unions, and NGOs that promotes respect for workers’ rights around the globe.
- 2008 – We open our first store in The Netherlands in Rotterdam, the first of our 20 stores today.
- 2009 – Our European expansion ramps up as we set down roots in Portugal, Germany and Belgium with stores in Lisbon, Bremen, and Liege. Today we have 10 stores in Portugal, 31 stores in Germany and 8 stores in Belgium.
- 2012 – We open in Austria, with our store in Innsbruck, the first of our 5 stores in the country.
- 2013 – We open up in France with a store in Marseilles, the first of now 21 stores. A significant milestone in Primark’s history with the launch of our Primark Sustainable Cotton Programme which aims to help farmers grow cotton using more environmentally friendly farming methods while improving their livelihoods. We have now trained 252,800 farmers in more sustainable farming methods, and are on track to train 275,000 farmers by end of 2023.
- 2015 – This was the year we finally cross the Atlantic, and opened our doors in the US, in Boston, still our US headquarters today. Today we have 16 stores in the US and will reach 60 stores by the end of 2026.
- 2016 – We open our doors in Arese, Italy, home to our first Italian store. Today we have 14 stores in Italy, including our Milan flagship store and regional office.
- 2018 – Primark’s own-brand cosmetics receives the coveted Leaping Bunny status by Cruelty Free International, the gold standard certification programme. Primark also becomes a participant in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular.
- 2019 – The world’s biggest Primark opens in Birmingham, UK, featuring five floors, and over 160,000 feet of retail space. We also entered our 12th market and first in Central Eastern Europe, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- 2020 – Poland becomes our 13th market with the opening of our new store in Warsaw. We now have 4 stores in Poland with more due to open in 2023.
- 2021 – Primark unveils a wide-reaching sustainability strategy Primark Cares, designed to reduce fashion waste, halve carbon emissions across its value chain and improve the lives of the people who make Primark products. We commit to change the way our clothes are made without changing our affordable prices, enabling everyone to make more sustainable choices when shopping. The Czech Republic becomes our 14th market with the opening of our new store in Prague. Our 400th store opened in Catania, Sicily, on December 1st.
- 2022 – Continuing our expansion, we opened our first store in Romania, our 15th market, in the capital of Bucharest. We launched a Click & Collect trial in 25 stores in the UK, where customers can purchase an extended kid’s range online and collect in store.
- 2023 – We entered our 16th market with the opening of our new store in Bratislava, Slovakia.
