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40 I Southeast Europe bne July 2019
announced plans for further expansion in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Primark has already signed the lease for its first store in Poland, following this up by signing the lease for its first store in the Czech Republic in Prague city centre, a trading update from its parent company Associated British Foods said earlier this year.
By entering the Slovenian market, Primark follows fellow international fast fashion giants H&M and Zara into the eastern part of the continent, as they have shifted their focus from developed to emerging markets over the last decade, analysis by
bne IntelliNews showed.
This trend is expected to continue. “West European markets becoming quite saturated, with the largest fast fashion retailers ... showing slow growth or even decline. Naturally these companies are looking to expand to emerging economies in Eastern Europe, Asia or Latin America where their presence
is smaller and they can expand and show faster growth rates,” Euromonitor International’s research manager
for beauty and personal care, Mantas
Kaluina, told bne IntelliNews in a 2018 interview.
Consultancy McKinsey calls 2017 the end of an era, after which “the West will no longer be the global stronghold for fashion sales”. From now on, it antici- pates, more than half of apparel and footwear sales will take place outside Europe and North America, as the spending power of the growing middle classes in emerging markets increases.
“McKinsey calls 2017 the end of an era, after which “the West will no longer be the global stronghold for fashion sales”
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