Primark is opening 18 new stores this year and one is…

Primark is opening 18 new stores this year and one is close to Liverpool

Primark has confirmed its planning to open 18 new stores this year and one will be right here in the north west.

The store is much loved in Liverpool, with shoppers packing out the Church Street site every day.

Now the retailer is continuing its expansion, following a “particularly good” November and December, which saw sales rise by 4% on last year, according to the Mirror .

In a statement, Primark’s owner Associated British Foods, said: "This sales growth was due almost entirely to the increase in selling space.

"We now expect to add a net 0.9 million square feet of additional selling space in this financial year," it added.

"We expect to open 18 new stores together with a number of relocations."

One of those new stores will be located at the Trafford Centre, it’s been confirmed, with the store expected to open in March . But the expansion isn’t limited to the UK, with new stores planned across Europe, including Paris, Rome and Barcelona.

"As previously announced, we will enter the Polish market with a new store in Warsaw in spring 2020, followed by a store in Prague, Czech Republic," Associated British Foods added.

"We have now also signed leases for a further store in Poland, in Poznan, and for our first store in Slovakia, in Bratislava which will take Primark to its fifteenth country."

Sophie Lund-Yates, market analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Primark is proof not every retailer struggled this Christmas."

She added: "What’s most striking about Primark is it’s essentially an old school retailer. Lack of a meaningful online business makes the chain a high-street play, so the improvement to sales performance is even more impressive."