Associated British Foods (ABF) who own Primark are expecting to have lost £1.1bn on sales due to the constant lockdowns and restrictions in the last six months.
ABF also expect to lose a further £480m in sales in the second half of the financial year, bewteen March and August.
They are expecting a strong recovery once stores are allowed to reopen due to pent up demand.
In the six months to 27 February, ABF are expecting sales to hit £2.2bn as some overseas stores have remained open, taking into account slaes periods prior to the new restrictions were imposed.
Once stores reopen bosses expect to be “highly cash generative” with some 83% of floor space to welcome customer back into their stores by 26 April.
ABF said, “We expect the period after reopening to be very cash-generative. We expect to sell the £150m of spring/summer inventory held over from last year, and our cash outlay in the second half for the coming autumn/winter season will mostly benefit from the £260m autumn/winter stock held over from the first half.”
They added, “Performance has varied by store, reflecting the prevailing circumstances of our customers including home working, less commuting and very little tourism.
“Like-for-like sales at our stores in retail parks were higher than a year ago, shopping centre and regional high street stores were lower than last year, and large destination city centre stores, which are heavily reliant on tourism and commuters, continue to see a significant decline in footfall.”
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