The early re-opening of high street and out-of-town stores has seen Primark reduce the size of its inventory which built up during lockdown by a “significant proportion”.
In a trading statement to investors Primark parent company Associated British Foods (ABF) said that while it had recognised an exceptional charge of £284 million” against inventory in hand and yet to be delivered “stronger than expected trading over the summer” had seen it sell significant proportion of the stock on hand.
It said that as a result the book value of the spring/summer inventory that would be carried into its next financial year was now expected to be “some £150 million” and total year-end inventory levels would be much lower.
All of Primark’s UK stores have now re-opened but ABF said that sales were expected to be 12% lower on a like-for-like basis.
Back in April Primark said it was committed to paying its suppliers £370 million in additional orders for product over and above the £1.5 billion of stock in stores, depots and in transit.
