Primark enjoys 'record' sales in first week of reopening as huge queues form outside Sheffield store

Bosses at the clothing giant said the return to trading had seen it smash the previous totals, as they declared ‘fashion is back’.

Lengthy queues formed outside Primark’s branches in Sheffield city centre and at Meadowhall, where around 200 people were lining up to get in when it opened for the first time in months last Monday at 8am, and there were similar scenes around the country.

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John Bason, finance chief of the retailer’s parent company Associated British Foods (ABF), explained to the PA news agency: “Our week goes Sunday through to Saturday. So, from Monday to Saturday – those six days are comfortably ahead of any seven-day period of Primark sales in England and Wales ever.

“Many individual stores broke their own sales records. We were all excited in the lead-up to Christmas last year, but we’re beating the Christmas weeks.”

He added that shopping habits had changed compared with the emergence from previous lockdowns, with customers eschewing the ‘easy to wear’ clothes which had proved popular for lounging around at home in favour of glad rags to impress when out socialising.

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“What is striking this time is, fashion is back… It feels like people are thinking more about what they’re going to wear when they go out with friends or go out to dinner and all those social occasions," said Mr Bason.

He added that it was city centre stores which had recorded the best sales unlike in previous lockdown easing, when retail parks proved more popular.

Asked whether the past 12 months has helped encourage Primark to finally embrace online sales, Mr Bason said it had not.

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“I’m going to be the last finance director to say it was a great 12 months. We’ve lost £3 billion in sales and about £1 billion in profit. So, we’re talking big numbers,” he said.

“But what you’ve got to do is keep your mind on what’s the business model going forward… We are very distinctive, we’re the best value around and you can’t get our value online.”