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Breege was in Gran Canaria recently to launch Primark’s first store in the Canary Islands, with more in the pipeline. Watching her in action before the speeches was a lesson in human resource management; she knew the names of very many of those on the new shop floor, was, of course, dressed in Primark fashion, just as much at ease with the young team getting the shelves ready as with the directors, local press and Gran Canarian mayor Jerónimo Saavedra, who seemed absolutely delighted to be there, happy with more job creation for the city, and talking jokingly of an Irish coup d’etat in the city.

Many people may not be aware that Primark was and still is the international branch of the Irish shop Penneys (the name changed when they decided to branch out overseas to avoid any legal problems with another international company), with head office and all major decision-making still taking place above the shop in Mary Street, in Dublin.  Breege has been with the company since 1979, and as she says, “that’s key for us, business is run from Ireland, decisions are made in Ireland”.

But what makes a small company into the huge European success it is today, employing more than 32,000 people in over 205 shops in Spain, Ireland, England, Portugal, Germany, Holland and Belgium?  Rather than close doors during the last two recession led years, Primark has continued to expand and successfully. So what’s the company secret?  Breege says, “well I think we do well in good times and in bad.  It’s really about price and quality, it’s really about value for money. We are a volume business, a simple business, we have good technology, good back up , we have our excellent staff, 32,000 of them, with longevity, longevity with the suppliers, and it’s those things working together that mean we can supply value for money, and that’s why we believe that the customer does come back again and again.”

Keeping the price low is of course a key element – and Primark work hard to achieve that, using their own and freelance designers, working directly with producers, keeping profit margins low and, as said, with high volume turnover this still means the company is making money. They also maintain a high level of product rotation, so there’s something new for their (mostly young, under 35) customer base on a weekly basis.

And there's more, and specifically when it comes to locating abroad.  “We want to do business the local way, we want to bring the DNA of Penneys in Ireland to an international clientele, but its always about doing business the local way.   For example we have two excellent Spanish nationals living in Dublin and they’ve come over, they’ve relocated and they’re the ones who inform us regarding the product for Iberia (so there is cross product integration).  We are in the process of recruiting similar German product controllers to come and live in Ireland for Northern Europe.

“We also have a very short chain of command and I think that’s good for communication, decisions are made not by committee, decisions are made by individuals, we make bad ones, we make good ones, but we encourage people to make decisions at the lowest level.

“You get out of it what you put into it” and this despite the fact that what was once a small company is now owned by Associated British Foods (ABF) and run by the Westons.  Breege says that despite the appearance of being a giant corporation, the ethos of belonging to a family run company remains. “From the Westons we get a lot of freedom, they support us on issues that really matter.  They have great respect for the Irish and the Irish tradition in business”  And that is?  “I think it’s about hard work, I think it’s about detailing as well as the big picture. Retailing is detailing... in our business there are no such words as ‘I can’t do’, instead the emphasis is on ‘how can I get it done’.  We are a close team, led by a fantastic chief executive, Paul Merchant, who is a great communicator, has a great sense of product - the best people in the best seats”.

The company's expansion was, for many years, limited to the UK, but when they did decide to look for new markets, Spain was the first choice, and quite obviously, given the store locations, not with the smaller ex-pat market in mind.  “There are a lot of similarities between Spain and Ireland - education, family, a good sense of humour…we did our market research but even then were particularly surprised …we expected to do reasonably well, but it has outshone our expectations. 

“We love the Spanish…for example in our international buyers’ office we have Spanish classes three times a week, and it’s not so much that people need to know the language for their work, it’s for the camaraderie, that understanding of the culture, because there are also a lot of differences between Spain and Ireland.  And we want to do things the local way.  I myself have been learning Spanish for about eight years since we knew we were coming here. That is important to us.” And indeed Breege’s inauguration speech was delivered in well-penned and delivered Spanish, much to the appreciation of the local staff and invited guests. They also donated a cheque for €10,000 to local charity La Asociación APAELP, further underwriting their desire to integrate into the local community.

When are we likely to see more Primark stores in the islands?  There is one in the offing, and the islands as a whole are being considered, but as Breege says, “we’re going to look and see. Four years ago we started in Spain, and we now have 18 stores, it’s really important that we have the right people in place, we’re not in any rush, and we want to do it well. And it’s about learning as we go.”

By Clio O’Flynn

Gallery: Doing things the local way

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