What will happen to the Cologne branch?

Fashion discounter Primark’s sales have long been weak. Now the company is also shutting down different locations.

Textile giant Primark, headquartered in Ireland, is one of the world’s largest fashion discounters. The company operates a total of 385 locations, of which 32 are in Germany. Since the first German branch was opened in Bremen in 2009, the group has continued to grow in Germany. There are now shops in Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Munich, Dortmund and Cologne.

But now Primark has to close some of its branches. This is reported by the specialist magazine “Textilewirtschaft”. According to this, two branches will be affected by the closure from 2023. One in Berlin’s Schloss-Strassen-Center and one in Darmstadt at the end of January. The Berlin branch will close its doors in April, but three other locations will remain in the capital. The reason given by the company for closure is that the branches are not commercially viable.

Cologne fans of cheap clothing stores can at first breathe a sigh of relief. The large, multi-storey branch at Newmarket is not to be closed. Here one is convinced that “Primark will be successful in Cologne and will fully fulfill its rental agreement,” explained Angela de Jager, center manager at Aplona Real Estate GmbH, which is responsible for the “Express” for Neumarkt-Galerie. . ,

How long the Cologne branch has a future, however, is not entirely to be seen. After all, the company has been posting declining sales for years, as “Wirtschaftswoche” reports. According to it “a sell-out is imminent”, which the trade magazine mainly attributed to some poor planning by the company. While the company still had a turnover of 926 million euros in 2019, it was only 380 million last year. So a significant reduction.

Wirtschaftswoche sees Primark’s parent company as primarily to blame. The food group “Associated British Foods” (ABF) has expanded aggressively in more and more cities and operates branches with a very large area. Under these circumstances, it remains to be seen how long the company will be able to keep its branch in Cologne, which has four floors.