// Primark to open 8 new stores in Italy by the end of 2022 – more than doubling its current estate
// Primark opened its first store in Italy 5 years ago, and it currently has 6 stores
// One of the new stores set to open in Milan next year will also house Primark’s Italian regional office
Primark has revealed ambitious expansion plans in Italy in which it will more than double its store estate across the country by the end of 2022.
Currently the value fashion retailer has six stores in Italy, and it now intends to open another eight stores in the 21 months to bring its Italian portfolio to 14.
Primark opened its first store in Italy five years ago.
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The first of the new eight stores will open in Rome, within the Roma Est Shopping Centre.
The retailer hopes to have new store openings in Catania, Sicily, at the Centro Sicilia Shopping Centre, and Chieti, Abruzzo, within the Megalò Shopping Centre, by the end of this year.
The remaining five stores are scheduled to open late next year in Grugliasco, Turin, in Shopville Le Gru; Casalecchio di Reno, Bologna, in Shopville Gran Reno; Marcianise, Caserta, in the Campania Shopping Centre; Marghera, Venice, at the Nave De Vero Shopping Centre; and Milan, on Via Torino.
The Milan location will also house Primark’s Italian regional office.
Despite lockdowns and trading restrictions in all of the global markets it trades in due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Primark has still managed to open six new stores in France, Spain, the US and Italy in the 27 week period to the end of February.
Primark also plans to open 15 new stores over the next six months in Spain, the US, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Czechia.
The expansion plans mean an additional net 700,000sq ft of selling space is expected to be added in Primark’s current financial year.
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