Primark as an interesting business story. The chain will also open in Prague

The reopening of stores is not only tense for customers, but also for retailers. And among them is also one of the richest families in the world – the Weston clan, represented mainly by its oldest members Galen and Hilary. It is the Westons who own the Primark fast fashion chain, whose first Czech store is about to open.

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Many Czechs will never miss Oxford Street on their way to London. The mecca of shopping on the one hand offers the world’s top brandy in the famous Selfridges department store, at the other end of the street, at the Tottenham Court Road stop, then you will find an equally full fashion house – Primark. The two places could not be more different. At Selfridges, you can buy the latest goods from Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood or designers whose names don’t tell you anything yet. In Primark you can get nameless t-shirts, underwear and jackets. In the first, however, you spend thousands of pounds, in the second, it is said that nothing costs more than 25 pounds.

And in addition to satisfied customers, the two concepts are connected by another – the owner. Through various companies, the Weston family clan owns the eighth place in this year’s edition of the Sunday Times’ list of the richest Britons, with assets in excess of £ 10.5 billion.

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And it was Primark, a popular concept of fast fashion that the family founded and spread around the world, that was one of its main sources of profit. Otherwise, it controls much larger companies. In particular, the parent company of Primark Associated British Food, which is one of the largest food companies in the world, or the largest Canadian retail chain Loblaws. However, about four hundred Primark stores in 15 major markets around the world had monthly sales of £ 650 million before the COVID-19 pandemic broke, making it a jewel in the Weston portfolio.

This year, the “Primark” family was to expand to include a Czech store, which was to offer customers an alternative to the Dresden shopper. However, due to the pandemic, the official opening of the store on the corner of Prague’s Wenceslas Square and Opletalova Street has been postponed several times. And while the office building that will house Primark will probably start operating in December, the start of the business itself is not only the responsibility of traders, but also of the government, which is still restricting retail.