Primark may invest more outside the UK as the high street will carry the “weight of tax rises” announced in last week’s budget, according to the chief executive of the cut-price fashion chain’s parent company.
George Weston, the chief executive of Associated British Foods (ABF), which owns Primark as well as food and sugar brands, said the business was preparing for a big rise in costs, after Rachel Reeves’s tax-raising measures, including an increase in employers’ national insurance contributions from next April.
Weston said the change meant ABF’s national insurance bill will “go up by tens of millions”, adding: “We undoubtedly have significant increases in costs that we are facing. It is not a surprise, the money had to come from somewhere.”
ABF operates in 56 countries around the world, and Primark recently launched its first US marketing campaign in New York in an attempt to attract more American shoppers.
Weston said Reeves’s measures could affect the company’s investment decisions going forward. “We’re an international business as well, we have choices about where we will invest,” he said.
“It’s quite clear to me that this a budget where the weight of the tax rises are falling on business – within that, it’s fallen particularly on the high street.”
However, he insisted that Primark had “no intention” of raising prices during the rest of the year.
Weston also said that the budget was positive for hard-pressed shoppers, despite the hit to retailers. He said there was “actually … more good news for the least affluent in the budget than bad”.
Primark posted £1.1bn in operating profits for the year to 14 September, up 53% from the previous year.
Sales grew by 6% overall but just 1% in the UK, its largest market, as cold, wet weather in April and June hit demand for summer clothes and shoes, as well as beachwear. However, its collaboration ranges, including Rita Ora and Paula Echevarría, were popular.
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On the high street, growth in UK retail sales slumped in October as shoppers put off spending in anticipation of Black Friday promotions and because of a later school half-term break, according to the British Retail Consortium.
Weston said there was an “unwillingness to spend in advance of needing something” among consumers, reflecting a caution that took hold as food and energy bills surged amid the cost of living crisis in late 2021.
However, ABF is hopeful that wage growth, along with a budget that Reeves said met the government’s promise not to increase taxes for working people, will underpin consumer spending going in to the Christmas season, Weston said.
He also said the company was still facing pressure across its supply chain, amid ongoing disruption to trade routes along the Red Sea and anti-government protests in Bangladesh.
