Penneys heads stateside
Primark is opening stores in the north east of the USA.
Primark's headquarters are in Dublin and its products are sold in Ireland through the Penneys chain.
The first store in the north east USA will be 70,000 square feet, and is to be opened in Boston by the end of 2015 with further stores due to open by the following summer.
Primark was founded on Dublin's Mary Street in 1969, and expanded to the UK market in 1971. It is now owned by parent company Associated British Foods.
The new store in Boston will be in the Burnham Building, which is currently being renovated, at Downtown Crossing, in the heart of the city. The site was previously home to Boston’s famous Filene’s department store.
The retail chain, which has 269 stores covering nearly 10 million square feet of selling space across Europe, and has seen a 26% jump in profits in the last six months.
The United States has been a notoriously tricky market for European retailers to crack, with Tesco and Marks & Spencer among those to experience failure.
Primark, however, has had strong performance in Europe in recent months – its sales rose 14% to €2.8bn in the 24 weeks to March 1, leading to a rise in profits to more than €360m.
Shares in parent company Associated British Foods jumped 9% today after the announcement.
