Viva la France! for Primark

As Primark delivered stellar trades results and sales this week, it was the UK retail giant's success in France that was the big news.

Alongside some “very high sales densities” achieved by stores opened in the last 18 months, owner ABF said France “has been our most successful new market entry to date”.

France has traditionally being a tough market to crack for British high street brands, as the French have their own brands and market covered.

Primark made no comment in its official results announcement regarding its new presence in the American market. Primary's chief George Weston did say its first store is trading well and customers have been amazed by the low prices. With the store only open eight weeks there were not much results to share from one store, but it is evident that there is plenty of investment cash for Primark USA with more stores coming soon.

During the fiscal year Primark opened almost 1m square feet of selling space bringing the total store count to 293 stores and 11.2 square feet.