Associated British Foods has said that sales at its Primark clothing business are expected to be 17% ahead of last year at constant currency and 16% ahead at actual exchange rates. The group said that this result was driven by an increase in retail selling space, like-for-like sales growth, which is expected to be 4.5% for the full year, and superior sales densities in the new stores. Good like-for-like sales growth was driven by highly successful autumn/winter and spring/summer ranges.

By the end of the financial year, Primark will have opened 1.4 million sq ft of selling space in 28 new stores, the most recent being Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Bath in the UK and Enschede in the Netherlands.

In April, the company announced that it had decided to take Primark into north east America, with a store expected to open in Boston in 2015 and a projected ten further stores opening by late 2016.