Primark Founder Arthur Ryan Died At The Age Of 83.

Primark, a cheap fast fashion retailer from Ireland, today announced the death of the founder, Arthur Ryan, at the age of 83.

In the press release, Primark Stores CEO Paul Marchant commended Arthur Ryan not only as a "born retailer and visionary leader", but also a "true retail pioneer."

50 years ago, the Weston family behind the Associated British Foods PLC (ABF.L) Ying Lian food group (hereinafter referred to as ABF) hired Dublin Arthur Ryan to open up retail businesses for the group. Arthur Ryan launched a cheap clothing store in Dublin with a start of 50 thousand pounds and named it "Penneys" with the same pronunciation as "penny (pence)".

When the business was extended to England in 1973, because the American department store Penny department store has registered its trademark locally, "Penneys" has been renamed "Primark" and has been used in areas other than Ireland.

In 2005, Primark Stores Ltd., which had 112 stores, bought 120 outlets of Littlewoods, a British high street retailer, at 409 million pounds, and retained nearly 50 stores to expand rapidly. The remaining 60% shops sold off.

Arthur Ryan led Penneys/Primark for 40 years until September 2009 when she left CEO at the age of 74, and was replaced by the then chief operating officer, Paul Marchant, but Arthur Ryan continued to serve as chairman. Paul Marchant revealed that Arthur Ryan still had a heart to mind business after its withdrawal from daily management and visited shop regularly.

At that time, the sales scale of Primark Stores Ltd. had reached 2 billion pounds, and its outlets covered Spain, Portugal, Holland and Germany. With Slovenia's first entry into central Europe in June this year, 50 years ago, the brand now has 12 markets, including milestone in the US market. As of June 22nd, 372 stores in the world had 15 million 600 thousand square feet of retail space.

Primark Stores Ltd. has always avoided online sales to protect profit margins. In the last fiscal year, the brand realized revenue of 7 billion 477 million pounds by physical channels, an increase of 6% compared with the same period last year, and the adjusted operating profit increased by 14.7% to 853 million pounds. More than half of ABF's revenues and profits come from the brand.

Management confirmed in April this year that the media reported that it was studying the use of "click and take" to expand sales channels. They also stressed that the promotion of attracting customers to stores through social media is still the focus of this stage. The brand has 7 million 400 thousand fans in the picture sharing social networking application Instagram.

In the press release, ABF CEO George Weston said: "when my grandfather Garfield Weston and uncle Galen Weston recruited Arthur in 1969, they realized that they had used an excellent businessman. Over the next few decades, Arthur has made the three generations of the Weston family realize that he is also a great leader and business founder.

Before joining ABF, Arthur Ryan was a men's buyer of Dunnes in Irish department store. He always insisted on the idea of "cheap fashion". He worked hard, understated and never visited.