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Primark

Naza

Primark (Business Description, Products and Services, OM/SCM Practices)

Institutional Affiliations

Date

Authors’ Note
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Primark

Primark is a Europe and American based subsidiary of Associated British Foods (ABF)
which deals in the retail business of the latter. Associated British Foods (ABF) is a well-
developed brand of British that provides safe and nutritious food and clothing for a great value
for money. In 2019, it has celebrated its 50th year in the retail industry. Primark is the largest
retail brand of accessories, hosiery, footwear, lingerie, children’s wear, men’s wear, women’s
wear and beauty products (V.Das, 2019). It has 373 stores in the UK (189), Portugal (10),
Germany (30), Ireland (37), Slovenia (01), Italy (04), Spain (46), Netherlands (20), France (15),
Belgium (07), Austria (05) and America (09). It employs 78000 people in the retail business. It
started to trade as Penneys in Ireland in 1969, 50 years have been passed. It does organic growth
by increasing its sales. The increasing selling space is done by the capital investment in leasing
properties and free holding them. Primark invests in buying merchandises and making the stores
refreshing so that the shopping stores look an exciting place to visit (Annual Reports and
Accounts, 2019). Primark has a unique selling strategy. It provides its customers with a value-
added fashion at fewer prices. It spends less on advertising by keeping less overhead cost and
investing in the state of the art logistics. It relies on selling while not compromising on the high-
quality of its retail business. It makes the availability of the articles on the shelf after the fashion
show catwalk with this less duration of 6 weeks (Arvaniti, 2020).

The Operations Management (OM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) of Primark
are done by the following steps: Stock Request, Stock Replenishment, Returns, Customer
Service and Payment. In Stock Request, the warehouse of the Primark is used which holds the
stock for the delivery of products at the stores. The stores use stock request system called as
Management Information System (MIS) for the reordering of the products from the head office
to make the articles available for the customers. In Stock Replenishment, the loss of sale is
prevented by making goods available for purchase to the customers. For this purpose, the staff of
stores maintains the products at the display on a regular basis. So, fast selling is maintained in a
particular section of the products and replenishing is made. In Returns, the return policy is
managed by the return desk. Under this step, the customer should have a purchasing receipt of
the product for the claim. The query is resolved by the staff and the exchange of products and
return of funds is made based on the customers’ choice. For the faster processing, the queue of
customers is made in front of the desk and the customers know the particular person to whom to
address the query. In Customer Service, the roaming staff rather than a specific desk in the stores
deal with the customers. This method of dealing with queries of customers is time-consuming
and results in delays. Apart from that, the staff is trained on a daily basis to deal with the needs
of customers. Lastly, Payments are dealt on the payment desk where customers stand in a queue.
For dealing with the payment procedure quickly, the Primark mostly has more than one payment
sections (Essays, 2018). The other method of SCM/OM is done by purchasing the raw material
from the countries like Bangladesh, China, Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries and moved to
the America and Europe for the finished products of Primark (Hendriksz, 2020).
Three questions I would ask from the company as an interviewee: Why does the company
not move its Supply Chain Management/ Operations Management out of Europe and America?
When is the company establishing its online chain? Why does the company not invest in
advertising?
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Primark

References:
(2019). Annual Reports and Accounts. Austria.

Arvaniti, C. (2020). Evolution Of E-Business Environment In Fashion Sector. Retrieved from Semantics
Scholars.

Essays, U. (2018, November 1). Evaluating Operations Management practices in ASOS and Primark.
Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/evaluating-operations-
management-practices-in-asos-and-primark-business-essay.php

Hendriksz. (2020). Case Study On Primark Sustainability, Ethics, Supply Chain. Retrieved from Fashion
United.

V.Das. (2019). PRIMARK STORES LTD- Financial Analysis. Retrieved from Statista.