Primark to open biggest UK store next year

Budget fashion retailer Primark is set to open its biggest UK store in December 2018 in Birmingham. The ‘megastore’ will span 160,000 square foot across four floors and will carry all of the retailer’s offering including women’s, men’s and children’s fashion, as well as footwear, accessories, lingerie, beauty and homeware.

Primark acquired the Birmingham Pavilions centre for a rumoured 60 million pounds in 2014 and its redevelopment plan to create its largest flagship store in the UK was approved in January 2016.

When the new store opens the fashion retailer will close its existing New Street store in Birmingham, however, it states that the larger store will relocate its staff as the flagship will employ around 800 people, up from 460 it currently employees.

The new Birmingham store will be slightly bigger than the chain’s current largest UK site, which is in Manchester, which spans across three floors of the former John Lewis building across to around 155,000 square foot.

The Primark opening will come just ahead of the company’s 50th anniversary, which debut in Dublin in 1969 under the Penneys name.