Primark completes Littlewoods acquisition

Discount fashion store Primark today finally completed the acquisition of all the Littlewoods high street stores for £409 million. The transaction has taken a long time to complete, according to the Financial Times. Owned by Associated British Foods - the food and retailing consortium led by George Weston - Primark will purchase all 120 Littlewood stores from the Barclay brothers. The company will then sell approximately 60 per cent of them.

"This is a unique opportunity to acquire a portfolio of large stores in attractive high street locations," Weston told the FT. "It will bring Primark to many towns and cities where it is currently not present." Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay intend to keep the Littlewoods home shoppng catalogue business, although they have already sold the Index catalogue shopping stores.

Primark currently operates 122 stores but has chosen to expand its presence and shop size. It expects to trade from 128 stores with 2.9 square feet of shop space by February 2006. It also revealed that it plans to open more new stores from June 2006, thereby increasing its selling space by almost 30 per cent.

Associated British Foods invested £70 million in Primark in the past year. Unlike other clothing retailers, Primark experienced a growth of 6 per cent in like-for-like sales and is attracting a considerable amount of shoppers. Earlier this year, the retailer bought six stores from the administrator of Allders, the poorly performing department store.

According to the FT, it is thought that fashion store New Look and entrepreneur Philip Green are now interested in buying some of the Littlewood stores. New Look had been part of a joint bid for the Littlewood stores together with Primark until last week.