The company which operates Penneys in Ireland made an average pretax profit of more than €2 million per day.
New accounts lodged by Primark Ltd show pretax profits more than doubled from €416.63 million to €881.5 million in the 12 months to the end of September 14th.
However, the impact of poor weather conditions during Summer 2024 contributed to revenues from the Penneys Irish store network dipping marginally from €744.5 million to €741.7 million.
The annual revenues equate to €14.26 million of sales per week for the 38 unit Irish strong network of Penneys stores.
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Overall revenues at Primark Ltd last year increased by 5 per cent from €3.91 billion to €4.1 billion and revenues were made up of €2.1 billion of revenues from intercompany supplies of inventory; Primark Way franchise income of €1.25 billion and the remaining €741.7 million from Irish retail revenues.
The Primark Way franchise is a business format which is developed and run from Ireland and provides Primark intellectual property, know-how and services to Primark businesses overseas.
The directors state that “Irish store trading performance was flat in the current year with trade stronger in the first half of the year”.
“Trade in the second half of the year was impacted by adverse weather conditions,” they added. Still, “the opening of the Bray store in Summer 2024 negated this somewhat”.
A spokesman for Primark said: “in Ireland, we’re continuing our multi-yearmultiyeart programme, including recent refurbishments of Penneys O’Connell Street in Dublin and Limerick city, with further store redevelopments planned in the coming months for stores in Portlaoise, Limerick, and Ennis.”
The Primark spokesman said: “We had a positive year in 2023-2024 with increased turnover and profit due to strong trading across our key growth markets in Europe and the US as well as steady performance from our Irish stores and the addition of a new store in Bray.
The accounts start that the €250 million investment programme over the coming years will create an additional 1,000 jobs and increase selling space in Ireland by an estimated 20 per cent.
The directors state that a new distribution facility for Newbridge, Co Kildare represents an investment of €75 million “which is due within the next year”.
The directors state that the overall Irish investment “reinforces the company’s long term commitment to cities, towns and local communities across the country”.
The accounts disclose that the company paid out dividends of €809 million.
The company recorded a post tax profit of €771 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of €109.9 million.
Primark opened its first store in Dublin in 1969 under the name Penneys with the firm aiming to have 530 stores open globally by the end of 2026.
The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €86.53 million and non-cash amortisation costs of €45.35 million.
Numbers employed by the firm last year decreased slightly from 7,064 to 7,054 made up of 5,033 retail assistants, 595 retail managers and 1,426 ‘central’.
Staff costs increased from €300.19 millon to €319.03 million. Directors ast year received variable payroll amounts of €5.12 million, €4.2 million under long term incentive plans while €950,000 was also paid out for compensation for loss of office.
At the end of September 14th last, Primark Ltd’s accumulated profits stood at €1.6 billion
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