In June 1969, the first Penneys store opened in Mary Street, Dublin.
Within a year, four more stores were added – all in the Greater Dublin area. By 1973, the number of stores had reached 18 in Ireland and Primark began trading in Great Britain with four out-of-town stores. The following year saw the opening of the first UK High Street stores in Derby and Bristol In May 2006, Primark opened its first store in Spain – in Plenilunio (Madrid), followed by a second store in Murcia in September 2006.Primark Stores Limited is a clothes and linens retailer inthe UK and Euorpe with over 232 branches. Number of Stores Trading at 10th December 2011 Ireland - 38 Spain - 22 UK - 156 The Netherlands - 3 Portugal - 5 Germany - 7 Belgium - 1 Total - 232 TNS ranks Primark as the second largest clothing retailerin G. B.
by volume in terms of market share. It was voted by the GMTV and ITV viewers as the “BestValue High Street Fashion” and it was placed as theleading retailer in value clothing by the Verdict Research S. W. O. T.
Analysis of Primark StrengthGreat prices, fantastic value, good returns policy. Primark offers job opportunities and employs over 27,000 people. Primark offers high street quality clothes for cheap prices and qualityservices to attract its customers and it also provides clothing for allages and sexes. The company is part of the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) whichfocuses on worker’s rights, their production of goods and bringingbusinesses together to work on labour rights issues. TNS ranks Primark as Great Britain’s second largest clothing retailerby Volume in terms of market share. WeaknessLong queues, very messy stores, unhelpful staff, uncomfortable conditions Primark has little in terms of expression and communication as it doesnot advertise which is an advantage to its competitor’s.
Other issues were with poor working conditions and disvaluingworkers rights. Opportunities To provide high quality clothes to fashion conscious people. They now have an opportunity to share their high quality products andservices overseas. Threats The company can also have problems in the area of advertising asthey do not have any advertising whilst their competitors do.Primark’s threats are the competition with other companies such asM&S, Next, Zara and H&M etc.
who are already very well established Economical Factors The company targets the young Consumer’s especially the under 35’s. In 2008, Primark has now opened over 12 new stores and has nowmoved its business around Europe Social Factors Primark has received several awards for being value retailer of theyear and UK retailer of the year. It now operates from 5. 4 million sq ft of selling space which gives itthe advantage of providing more goods and services.Technological Factors In Primark's bid for world class, cutting edge management of its ethical auditingprogramme, it has signed a deal with BSI Management Systems for theprovision of Entropy Software.
The investment in Entropy Software is a key part of Primark's ethical tradestrategy, allowing all supplier audits, non-conformances and remedial actions tobe managed through the Entropy Software platform, with much greater globalvisibility and management control Power of the Supplier Primark does not rely on one big supplier rather they have number of smaller ones.And so here the bargaining power of suppliers is ‘LOW’ with Primark. Power of the Buyer Degree of Buyers power is ‘HIGH’, as there are multi players in themarket and now customer are more sensitive towards the price so theyvisit every shop and then make decision and the switching cost is alsonot too high. Competitive rivalry Competitive rivalry is “HIGH” in case of Primark as there are number of similar size players in the market with offering similar product and dueto high cost on exit (Exit barrier).Threat of the Substitutes Threat of substitutes is “HIGH” because other company are offeringsimilar products with low price and now it is very easy for customer toswitch from one product to other as they have become more choosey Conclusion Primark can easily expand and diversify, giving its rivals a competitiveenvironment with substantial financial power. Primark’s offer to the customer is one of high-quality merchandise, at value for money, backed by Primark’s service promise.
A strong consumer proposition has been developed by Primark brandand embodied in the line “Look Good, Pay Less”. This research can be concluded by mentioning that the UK Clothingretail industry is facing high levels of competition between variousplayers. But the end result shows, the consumers are most benefitedfrom it.
