Primark’s planned expansion in Italian looks like a boon for the local economy.
The low-cost fashion retailer set its sights on opening eight new stores across Italy, bringing its total store count there to 14 when all new locations open by late next year. The first store will open this summer in the Roma Est Shopping Centre, a complex in Via Collatina, Rome, which hosts over 210 shops. By the end of the year, new locations will launch at the Centro Sicilia Shopping Centre in Misterbianco, in the Catania province, and the Megalò Shopping Centre in Chieti. By the end of 2022, the balance of the stores will open in Shopville Le Gru, in Grugliasco, Turin; Shopville Gran Reno, in Casalecchio di Reno, Bologna; Campania Shopping Centre in Marcianise, Caserta; Nave De Vero Shopping Centre in Marghera, Venice, and in Milan on the Via Torino. The latter location will also house Primark Italy’s new regional office.
Primark said the eight new doors will also create more than 2,000 new jobs, including 140 store management positions. The retailer’s total workforce in Italy is expected to encompass roughly 3,600 positions.
The new stores will more than double Primark’s total selling space in Italy to 65,000 square meters (about 700,000 square feet), featuring women’s, men’s and children’s fashion across footwear, accessories, lingerie, beauty and homewares. Primark said the locations will also offer products made from sustainable, recycled and organic materials.
“We are thrilled to strengthen Primark’s presence in Italy and to offer ‘Amazing Fashion, at Amazing Prices’ to more and more Italian customers across the country. We are also excited to open our new regional office, above our Milan Via Torino store,” Luca Ciuffreda, head of sale for Primark Italy, said. “Since we opened our first store in Arese in 2016, we have worked particularly hard to ensure that we adapt to the needs of our Italian customers. As we continue to expand in Italy, we look forward to embedding ourselves in new regions and supporting local economies with our new store openings.”
Many of Primark’s European stores have temporarily re-closed, or are operating under reduced hours amid troubling coronavirus infection trajectories. Primark parent Associated British Foods said last month that Italy mandated closures on the weekends. Some stores across Europe have started to reopen, and153 stores in the U.K. are expected to reopen next month. The British government has said the earliest stores can begin to reopen is April 12, assuming the pandemic doesn’t worsen by then.