Primark preparing for 6 store openings in France

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
Sep 3, 2013

British budget retailer Primark has announced plans to open six locations across France over the next 12 months. All five stores are expected to open by the end of June 2014.

According to our sources, the first of the fleet of stores will open before the end of the year in Marseille’s Grand Littoral shopping centre, shortly followed by a store at Toison d’Or in Dijon in February. A third store will open close to Paris in the O’Parinor commercial centre located in Aulnay-sous-Bois. According to British press outlets, the fashion retailer will also be opening up shop in the La Bongarde centre in Villeneuve-La-Garenne, near to Paris. The various stores will boast between 3500 to 6000m² in shop floor, with the typical Primark store measuring 5000m².

Primark has also signed an agreement for a store in Val d’Europe, a popular commercial centre located close to Disneyland Paris. The store is due to open in June 2014, tying in with the opening of the Créteil Soleil store, also in the Paris region.

In terms of strategy, the brand – owned by Associated British Foods – has chosen to do business with several real estate investment companies with deals being done with Ségécé-Klépierre for Val d’Europe and Créteil Soleil, Unibail-Rodamco for Dijon, Hammerson for Aulnay-sous-Bois and Altarea Cogedim for Veilleneuve-La-Garenne.

With good coverage of the région Parisienne and a location in France’s second biggest city, Marseille, Primark’s French expansion should provide valuable insight for the company’s future in France. Between the locations, the retailer has chosen several older shopping centres in suburban areas of big cities (Créteil Soleil, Grand Littoral Marseille and O’Parinor) as well as newer centres in more urban areas (Villeneuve-La-Garenne and Dijon). An important location for the budget retailer will be its Val d’Europe store which neighbours designer outlet centre La Vallée Village and attracts many tourists whose spending habits tend to sit on the premium side of the scale. This diverse approach to store location will certainly allow plenty of scope for the brand to decipher exactly who its French customer is.

Primark has 256 stores across eight countries including the UK, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. Of the 256 stores, 160 are in the UK and 38 in the Republic of Ireland.