Primark has become the latest retailer to defy warnings of doom and gloom on the High Street.
Bosses cheered ‘strong trading’ over the festive period despite pressure on household budgets as it echoed the success of Marks & Spencer and Next.
A second fashion range from singer Rita Ora – featuring metallic and sequin partywear – flew off the shelves.
These products helped Primark rake in sales of £3.4billion over the 16 weeks to January 6, up 7.9 per cent on a year earlier.
A glittery grey blazer from the popstar’s collection for £32 and a humble £7 half-zip fleece proved particularly popular.
Top seller: A second fashion range from singer Rita Ora (pictured)– featuring metallic and sequin partywear – flew off the shelves
Strong sales of casual clothes have continued even after Covid lockdown restrictions were lifted, bosses said.
Primark conceded it suffered a ‘slow start’ to the critical ‘golden quarter’ as demand for winter clothes was hit by unseasonably warm weather in September and October.
But after a sluggish autumn, business picked up, with shoppers eager to get glammed up over Christmas. Partywear sales were 4 per cent higher than in 2022.
In the UK, the store’s market share rose to a record high of 7.1 per cent this winter.
The fashion chain’s cheery update followed optimism from bosses at Next and M&S, which both posted booming festive sales earlier this month.
M&S chief executive Stuart Machin, who has overseen a remarkable turnaround at the department store, said it was entering 2024 with a ‘spring in our step’.
And boss of Next, Lord Wolfson, said the consumer environment seemed to appear ‘more benign than it has for a number of years’.
Group revenues at Primark’s owner Associated British Foods (ABF), whose food and ingredients brands include Kingsmill bread, Ryvita crackers and Twinings tea, rose 5.4 per cent to £6.9billion in the 16 week period.
ABF finance director Eoin Tonge, who helped M&S to get back into fashion in his previous role, said ‘there is still a mixed picture when it comes to the consumer’ but trading was ‘holding up well’.
‘I am relatively confident that inflation is going in the right way,’ he said, pointing to energy and food prices cooling.
Prices will even ‘eventually’ begin to fall this calendar year, according to Tonge, who added ‘you are seeing a little bit of that already’.
In recent months, Primark has increased discounts for shoppers and it slashed the prices of hundreds of children’s clothes last summer.
But Tonge warned that retailers are still staring down a mountain of cost increases this year.
‘National Living Wage going up by the level it is going up is a significant burden and we shouldn’t underestimate that,‘ he warned.
Echoing other High Street bosses, he called for Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to intervene to help businesses at the Budget on March 6.
Retailers are set to see a £470million hike in business rates this spring, according to lobby group, the British Retail Consortium.
Yesterday it called for rates to be ‘brought back to a more sustainable level’.
