Primark’s Fast-Fashion Crown Slips With Shoppers Lured to Shein

Inaaya Khan is surrounded by choice at the Westfield London shopping mall. It’s a Thursday lunchtime, and the 20-year-old student has emerged from Primark clutching one of its trademark brown paper shopping bags — and now the budget clothing retailer’s rivals are catching her eye.

“The price has definitely gone up,” said Khan, whose Primark purchase was matching pajamas with her friend, Klea. “Stuff that I buy now is about £20, before it would have been £12 or £13.” Her spending habits have shifted as a result. For the cheapest prices, Khan goes online to Shein; for something higher quality, a jump to H&M or Zara now doesn’t feel so big, she said.

Khan shows the squeeze facing Primark just as owner Associated British Foods Plc considers splitting it from the conglomerate, testing its standalone appeal. After years of looking unassailable in budget fashion, the timing suddenly looks less than ideal.

AB Foods — controlled by the billionaire Weston family — is weeks away from a self-imposed deadline to decide whether to break up a business that dates back to 1935 and has long lauded the benefit of its conglomerate structure. That’s against a backdrop of lacklustre holiday trading that triggered a profit warning and capped a turbulent year for Primark, which is without a permanent chief executive officer since former boss Paul Marchant left last March after a complaint about his behaviour.

Primark’s recent struggles partly reflect economic conditions hurting retailers across the UK and Europe. Higher taxes and inflation are straining household budgets, and shoppers with the least disposable income — who are often drawn to Primark’s budget pricing — are feeling the pinch the most.

But other challenges are more Primark-specific. In continental Europe, a market it entered in 2006, Primark is battling rivals with stronger brand perception like H&M and Zara. The latter’s owner, Inditex SA, is bringing its own budget clothing brand, Lefties, to the UK. And just about everywhere, fast-fashion giants Shein and Temu are drawing customers with even lower prices online.

Primark’s sales flatlined in its last financial year ended September at £9.5 billion ($12.8 billion). Profit growth also slowed from 2024.

“Primark has historically been the last bastion for young people to go and have that physical shopping experience,” said Steph Briggs, an e-commerce strategist at consultancy Retail Champion. “But I think that’s really changing, particularly with the likes of Shein and Temu and the sort of online giants that are doing that low margin, low budget, aggressive marketing.”

Amid the upheaval, AB Foods said in November it was considering splitting off Primark. CEO George Weston said it could help the conglomerate’s other businesses, which include sugar and food ingredients. These are less understood by investors than the clothing retailer, he said.

AB Foods said this month no decision has been made, adding that the board is reviewing the long-term interests of the business and won’t take action based on short-term performance or share-price movements. AB Foods’ stock has dropped 7.1 percent this year.

Primark was founded in Dublin in 1969 as Penneys, and still trades in Ireland under that name. Founder Arthur Ryan, with financing from the Westons, introduced the ‘pile them high, sell them cheap’ model that continued under Marchant — the only other CEO Primark has had.

Eoin Tonge, previously Primark’s finance director, is currently interim CEO and is a candidate for the permanent role.

Primark’s low prices reflect volume discounts from suppliers and slim margins. In its 70,000-square foot store over two floors in the Westfield mall — one of nearly 500 outlets across Europe, the US and Middle East — customers can pick up a plain white T-shirt for £3, or a five-pack of socks for £2.

Its children’s ranges, often featuring Disney or Marvel characters — and more recently KPop Demon Hunters — are especially popular.

Even so, Primark shoppers like Khan said they’re being more selective as prices rise. “I mainly buy the pajamas because they’re really cute,” she said. “But out of everything else, I’ll probably just get joggers.”

Analysts at Bernstein estimate Primark raised minimum prices by 33 percent between 2023 and 2025 in the UK, comparable to H&M and Next Plc in a period of rising costs and higher business taxes.

“It’s not that they’re pricing above the market, it’s just their consumer gets hit a lot more by these price increases,” Bernstein analyst William Woods said.

AB Foods said entry price points for key products, including children’s T-shirts at £1.30 in the UK, have not changed.

The retailer is raising prices in the US, where it has about 30 stores, due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Primark is sticking to its expansion plan, with a new four-story flagship store in Manhattan due to open in the spring.

“Physically reticketing millions of items is a big and expensive task and we will see how the consumer reacts,” Weston said in September. “We know that we’ll retain our competitive advantage.”

Yet Primark’s bricks-and-mortar model appears most exposed to the rise of online retailers such as Shein, the Singapore-based business that was founded in China.

A 2025 survey by market researcher Mintel found almost half of women in the UK aged between 16 and 34 had bought fashion items from Shein in the last 12 months.

Primark is seeking ways to regain the spotlight, such as a collaboration with singer Rita Ora, and its first UK television campaign last year to promote its autumn/winter women’s denim range. But it has been too slow to invest in marketing to compete, according to Panmure Liberum analyst Anubhav Malhotra. “Even if you are the best in the market, you still have to communicate to the consumer,” he said.

The retailer eschewed web sales entirely until late 2022 when it started click-and-collect from UK stores. A mobile app showing products and in-store availability launched last year in Italy and Ireland, and will be rolled out to other markets.

As part of his fightback against the rise of the Chinese e-commerce giants, Weston has pushed for the UK to end a tax exemption on shipping low-value items on which Shein and Temu rely. They bring “very little to Britain in terms of high-street investment, employment of people,” he said late last year.

The UK government has pledged to do so by March 2029, while Trump has already scrapped the so-called de minimis exemption in the US.

If the split happens, Weston has said Primark could attract investors otherwise put off by the complexity of AB Foods’ wider portfolio.

J O Hambro Capital Management Ltd sold its stake in AB Foods last year, telling clients the promise shown by Primark and brands like Twinings tea was being undermined by struggles in its sugar and bread businesses.

While family-owned businesses can benefit from a long-term approach, they sometimes “allow historical and emotional connections to prevent tough and necessary decisions from being taken,” the investment firm said in a memo.

AB Foods has said it expects to make a decision on Primark by April when it reports half-year results, with any split likely taking a further 18 months.

“The scale of the company was enough five or six years back for them to be able to do it,” said Malhotra at Panmure Liberum. “For it to be beneficial externally, that needs Primark’s performance to improve from where it is.”

By Maddie Parker and Katie Linsell

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