Primark has written to all of its product suppliers to halt current and future production together with the buying of any materials to be used in the products. It has moved quickly to close its stores in every country last week, followed by the UK which it closed yesterday, 22nd March. In the absence of an online sales channel, this will result in the retailer losing c.£650 million in sales per month.
Primark CEO Paul Marchant said: “This situation has been so fast moving – we could not have foreseen that over the course of a week, our stores in every country in which we operate, with the exception of the UK, have had to close. We have therefore been left with no option but to take this action. We have large quantities of existing stock in our stores, our depots and in transit, that is paid for and if we do not take this action now we will be taking delivery of stock that we simply can’t sell.”
The retailer is now working to reduce its operating costs to enable to ride out what could be an extended period of closure.
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