British shoppers continue to flock to Primark

The firm, owned by Associated British Foods, saw adjusted operating profit jump 25 per cent to £426m in the six months to March 2, while sales grew 4 per cent to £3.6bn.

Like-for-like sales fell 1.5 per cent overall but profit margins were “much higher”, ABF said.

In the UK, sales were up 2.3 per cent, and comparable sales grew 0.6 per cent.

The firm said its share of the clothing, footwear and accessories market in the UK increased substantially in the period, bucking the trend of wider high street malaise.

Primark, which does not have an online offering, recently opened a new megastore in Birmingham to much fanfare.

The strong Primark performance helped ABF record a 2 per cent rise in turnover to £7.5bn, although pre-tax profit was dragged down by a £79m exceptional charge linked to pensions and its bread-making arm.

Pre-tax profit came in 15 per cent lower at £515m in the period.

ABF’s sugar unit also saw profits take a knock as the result of “significantly lower” prices which affected the industry.

Profits dived from £106m to £1m.

ABF chief executive George Weston said: “This is a robust set of results. Profit at AB Sugar was substantially reduced but, from this period, we expect our sugar profitability to improve. The strong underlying growth in Grocery profits demonstrates good momentum.

“Primark delivered excellent profit growth, driven by further development of our customer experience and selling space expansion.”

ABF’s grocery arm recorded a 3 per cent sales rise to £1.7bn while profits jumped 2 per cent at constant currency to £167m.