Primark’s owner, Owner Associated British Foods (AB Foods) are forced to close stores accounting for almost a third of their sales.
The retailer said, stores in France, Spain and Austria were expected to make sales of £190m over the next month.
The stores that are closed in those countries represents around 20% of Primark’s selling space globally, whilst the UK represents almost 41% of sales.
AB Foods said, “We are managing the business appropriately but do not expect to significantly mitigate the effect of the contribution lost from these sales.”
They added, “Our priority continues to be the health and safety of our colleagues, customers and partners.
“Each of our businesses are closely monitoring the current and potential effects of the outbreak on their operations.”
On Saturday Spain imposed a national lockdown and the government has placed restrictions on the public, everyone has been told to stay indoors.
The Spanish government are allowing people to leave their homes to buy food and seek medical health care.
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez of Spain said, the new measures are drastic.
“Spain is demonstrating in these critical hours that it has the capacity to overcome adversity.”
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe ordered the lockdown of all “non-essential” public places for the foreseeable future.
He said this is France’s “biggest health crisis in a century,” adding, “We must absolutely limit our movements.”
Dr Ghebreyesus said, “You can’t fight a virus if you don’t know where it is.”
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