Primark Liverpool is one of the fashion chain’s biggest and busiest stores and one of its bosses has said he regrets having to raise prices. Tony McDonough reports
Shoppers at Primark in Liverpool city centre face price rises this autumn as inflation hits a 40-year high.
And a senior Primark executive said he “regrets” raising prices. But John Bason, finance director at parent company Associated British Foods, added they had no choice due to rising costs. He did not specify by how much prices would rise.
Primark’s Liverpool store, located in Church Street, is one of the chain’s biggest and busiest. It occupyies 84,000 sq ft on the site of the former Littlewoods store. The outlet is even bigger than the chain’s 70,000 flagship store in London.
UK inflation has already hit 9% this year and the Bank of England says it is likely to go into double figures. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says surging gas and electricity bills could send inflation as high as 14% for the poorest 10% of households.
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Other chains with a presence in Liverpool, including Next and Greggs, have all said they will have to raise prices. Primark said it will raise prices across some of its lines from autumn. In an interview with the BBC Mr Bason said the company was still committed to “affordability for everyone”.
He added: “I do regret that we have to put some prices up. It is a reflection of the scale of the inflation that we’re seeing. Obviously Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has really changed the economic environment and inflation in particular.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure that our prices stay where they are, but at some point the inflationary pressures is such that you do have to do something about it.
“There are some consumers who would normally be spending more and probably would come into Primark. And I think there would be those that have very, very constrained budgets and probably would shop less with us as a result of this.”
However, Primark, which also has stores in Wirral and Southport, had yet to see a fall in sales as a result of soaring inflation. Mr Bason said: “The footfall and the like-for-like sales that we’re seeing in the UK have been on a strongly improving trend this year.
“People are travelling, people are going back to the office although probably not back to where it was, and people are socialising. So we’re seeing a big pick up in sales relating to those activities.
“Even though we were closed for probably six months for the two main years of the pandemic, our customers have come back to us. That I think is very very striking. I think the demise of the high street is way overstated, but it is changing.”