Fashion Chain Primark Puts Click-And-Collect on Radar as Expansion Gathers Pace

Customers walks with shopping bags, as retail store Primark in Birmingham, Britain reopens its doors after a third lockdown imposed in early January due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, April 12, 2021. REUTERS/Carl Recine
Customers walks with shopping bags, as retail store Primark in Birmingham, Britain reopens its doors after a third lockdown imposed in early January due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, April 12, 2021. REUTERS/Carl Recine
TT
20

Fashion Chain Primark Puts Click-And-Collect on Radar as Expansion Gathers Pace

Customers walks with shopping bags, as retail store Primark in Birmingham, Britain reopens its doors after a third lockdown imposed in early January due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, April 12, 2021. REUTERS/Carl Recine
Customers walks with shopping bags, as retail store Primark in Birmingham, Britain reopens its doors after a third lockdown imposed in early January due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, April 12, 2021. REUTERS/Carl Recine

Budget fashion chain Primark, which has shunned the extra cost of home delivery, could add click-and-collect services to its revamped website over time, but still sees new stores in markets such as Italy and the United States as it main growth driver.

The chain, whose trendy clothes at rock-bottom prices have taken British and European shoppers by storm over the last decade, will launch a new website in the United Kingdom by the end of March, and across its 13 other markets by the autumn.

That will better showcase its 10,000 products, provide customers with near real-time information on product availability by store and enable Primark to mine the data of its over 24 million active "engagers".

"We’re making the digital move forward in a very big way in both the UK and the rest of Europe. That will generate sales and profits for us," John Bason, finance director of Primark's owner, Associated British Foods (ABF.L), told Reuters.

"Does this give us a capability to move further forward? Well let’s have a look at that," he said in an interview.

"If there was an e-commerce opportunity for us, it will probably be more in the area of click-and-collect," he said, referring to products ordered online and picked up in store.

But Bason said home delivery remained off Primark's agenda as the economics don't stack-up for its low price points.

"You can’t get our value by delivery to home, it’s as simple as that," said the 23-year veteran of AB Foods, which also owns major sugar, grocery, ingredients and agricultural businesses.

Founded by the late Arthur Ryan in Dublin in 1969 under the Penneys brand, Primark trades from 402 stores. It turned over 7.8 billion pounds ($10.2 billion) before the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit it hard as its stores were forced to close.

In November, AB Foods targeted an expansion of Primark to 530 stores over the next five years, accelerating growth in the major markets of the United States, France, Italy and Iberia. read more

But 530 is "not the end of the line," said Bason. "There’s a long way to go with this business in terms of adding space.”

Primark is confident its model can succeed in a US market that has been a graveyard for some of Britain's biggest retailers, including Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Philip Green's Topshop.

Bason said the five-year plan would take it from 13 US stores to about 60 - all to the east of the Mississippi River.

That still leave vast swathes of the United States unserved by Primark, including key states such as California.

“Without me being sort of categoric, you can see how you’d move into other geographies," said Bason. “There is huge potential in the United States, there really is."

He also believes Italy provides a "massive runway," noting Primark recently opened its first store in Sicily, a market that has more people than the island of Ireland - Primark's longest standing market. Primark currently has eight stores in Italy.

"In Spain and Iberia we have 65 stores. There’s no reason why Italy shouldn’t be that scale and go beyond that," Bason said.

Primark has also dipped its toe into central and eastern Europe, opening stores in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. A first store in Romania is slated for 2022.

Bason said its plans for this region had not been altered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.



Sandal Scandal: Prada Credits New Design's Indian Legacy

Customers shop for 'Kolhapuri' sandals, an Indian ethnic footwear, at a store in New Delhi, India, June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Customers shop for 'Kolhapuri' sandals, an Indian ethnic footwear, at a store in New Delhi, India, June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
TT
20

Sandal Scandal: Prada Credits New Design's Indian Legacy

Customers shop for 'Kolhapuri' sandals, an Indian ethnic footwear, at a store in New Delhi, India, June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Customers shop for 'Kolhapuri' sandals, an Indian ethnic footwear, at a store in New Delhi, India, June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Luxury fashion powerhouse Prada has acknowledged the ancient Indian roots of its new sandal design after the debut of the open-toe footwear sparked a furor among Indian artisans and politicians thousands of miles from the catwalk in Italy.

Images from Prada's fashion show in Milan last weekend showed models wearing leather sandals with a braided design that resembled handmade Kolhapuri slippers with designs dating back to the 12th century.

A wave of criticism in the media and from lawmakers followed over the Italian brand's lack of public acknowledgement of the Indian sandal design, which is named after a city in the western state of Maharashtra.

Lorenzo Bertelli, son of Prada's owners, responded to the sandal scandal in a letter to a trade group on Friday recognizing their Indian heritage.

"We acknowledge that the sandals... are inspired by traditional Indian handcrafted footwear, with a centuries-old heritage," Bertelli, Prada's head of corporate social responsibility, wrote in the letter to the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, seen by Reuters.

The sandals are at an early stage of design and it is not certain they will be commercialized, but Prada is open to a "dialogue for meaningful exchange with local Indian artisans" and will arrange follow-up meetings, he wrote.

A Prada spokesperson issued a statement acknowledging the sandal's inspiration from India, adding the company has "always celebrated craftsmanship, heritage and design traditions".

Prada products are beyond the reach of most Indians. Its men's leather sandals retail for $844 and up, while the Kolhapuri slippers, sold in Indian shops and street markets, start at about $12.

India's luxury market is small but growing fast, with rising numbers of rich people buying Louis Vuitton bags, Lamborghini cars, luxury homes and watches.

Conversely, Indian culture and crafts are increasingly finding their way into global brand designs. High-end jeweler Bulgari offers a $16,000 Mangalsutra necklace inspired by a chain traditionally worn by married women.

Bertelli's homage to Indian design was sent in a response to a complaint from the head of the trade group that represents 3,000 Kolhapuri sandal artisans, as the online uproar gathered momentum.

"From the dusty lanes of Kolhapur to the glitzy runways of Milan... will the world finally give credit where it's due?" India's DNA News posted on X.

Sambhaji Chhatrapati from the Kolhapur Royal family told Reuters by phone he was upset that craftsmen had not been acknowledged for the "history and heritage of 150 years."

Kolhapur-based businessman Dileep More, however, said images of the Prada sandal were bringing cheer to some artisans as they show their traditional product going global.

"They are happy that someone is recognising their work," he said.