Primark to invest over £100 million in its UK stores this year
As it celebrates its 50th anniversary of being on the UK high street, Primark is to invest more than £100 million in its UK stores this year.
The fashion retailer will be opening a new shop in Bury St Edmunds in March and a store at Teesside Park and Glasgow Fort later in the year. It is also planning some of its biggest-ever store extensions, including almost doubling the size of its Westfield Stratford shop to 81,000 square feet and growing its Metrocentre store to nearly 80,000 square feet.
The new stores and extensions will create almost 700 new jobs and means Primark will have 195 stores and almost eight million square feet of selling space by the end of the year.
In addition, Primark will be relocating several stores in Bradford, High Wycombe and Bolton to new and improved sites. Furthermore, 15 existing stores will be refurbished this year as part of the retailer’s ongoing refit programme,
Two new store locations in Epsom in Surrey and Newbury in Berkshire, are also confirmed and are expected to open from 2025.
Kari Rodgers, UK retail director at Primark, said: “We’ve changed a lot in the fifty years since we opened the doors on our first store in Great Britain in Derby back in 1974, but at our heart, we are still the same. We’re as committed as ever to offering the very best value on the high street and making great fashion more affordable and accessible for everyone. This latest investment will mean bigger and better stores, hundreds of new jobs across the country and shows our ongoing commitment to the UK high street.”
Primark currently employs more than 30,000 people in the UK and has 192 stores. It also has a presence in 15 other countries and and is aiming to reach 530 stores across its markets by the end of 2026.
