Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF) has said that sales at the high street retailer plummeted by 75% over the past quarter due to the coronavirus lockdown.
It said sales have been "encouraging" after reopening sites, and it is ordering £1 billion worth of new season stock.
ABF said the chain has been boosted by strong sales of children's clothes and leisurewear but that sales for the past quarter plummeted 75% to £582 million as a result of the virus pandemic.
The consumer group said total sales across its divisions had fallen by 39% to £2.6 billion for the quarter to June 20, compared with the same period last year.
READ MORE: Opinion: Scott Wright: Tax cut would give Scottish hospitality industry much-needed shot in the arm
It said significantly lower sales at Primark, which has no online operations, were partly offset by growth in its grocery and ingredients arms.
ABF said only eight of its 375 Primark stores have not yet reopened, while it has reported "reassuring and encouraging" trade from stores which have welcomed customers again.
Customer demand has also been strong for summer clothing such as shorts and T-shirts, while sales of formal menswear and travel-related accessories have been "unsurprisingly weak", it said.
In a statement, the company added: "Most of our regional stores are performing well, especially in retail parks.
"Our stores in the centre of big cities are suffering from the current absence of tourism and much lower commuter footfall."
It said sales in the first week of reopening in England and Wales were "ahead of the same week last year" after raking in £133 million from customers.
ABF warned that the Covid-10 crisis could knock more than £600 million off Primark's operating profit for the year.
It said: "With our stores trading, we have now placed orders worth over £800m for the autumn/winter season and, with further orders to be placed shortly, we expect the total for the coming season to exceed £1bn.
"Our sourcing team is in frequent and direct contact with each of our suppliers in relation to other supportive measures."
It also said it is expects "strong progress" in adjusted operating profits for its grocery, ingredients, agriculture and sugar arms.
All Bar One owner Mitchells & Butlers has revealed it swung to a £121 million half-year loss due to the lockdown and warned that the eating-out market may suffer as customers remain cautious after reopening.
The group - which has more than 1,700 pubs and brands including Harvester and Toby Carvery - tumbled into the red for the six months to April 11 after reporting profits of £75 million a year earlier.
READ MORE: Clydesdale Bank owner under fire over plans to close branches
It said revenues dropped to £1.04 billion from £1.2 billion a year earlier, with the first half including nearly four weeks of enforced lockdown closure.
The group booked £159 million in charges, which it said were mostly as a direct result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Mitchells plans to reopen all its brands in England from July 4 when lockdown restrictions ease for the sector, though some sites will remain closed initially.
It said those in Wales and Scotland will follow over the next two weeks.
Those not opening initially are likely to be in city centres and travel hubs, where fewer customers are expected, but the company aims to have 90% of sites reopened by the end of July with the others to follow when trading conditions allow.
But it warned of the risk that customers may "have a different mindset to eating out, with health and safety at the forefront of priorities".
"Equally, some consumers may not heed the measures put in place to restrict the spread of the virus, potentially putting our team members and other guests at risk," it added.
The group said that before the UK was placed in lockdown on March 24, the business was performing "very well", with like-for-like sales up 0.9%.
Comparable sales lifted 2.6% in the first 14 weeks of the first half.
Mitchells chief executive Phil Urban said: "The business was performing very well before the enforced closure in response to Covid-19, building on the strengths of our estate of mainly freehold properties, our diversified and well-loved brands and our team's industry-leading operational skills.
"These assets, coupled with our early experience of reopening in Germany, give us a clear plan for reopening."
Mitchells reopened its Alex business in Germany through mid to late May, which has given it a blueprint for opening in the UK.
It said in Germany, city centre sites have been the slowest to recover, but that some suburban businesses have seen days of year-on-year growth.
Anna Barnfather, an analyst at Liberum, said: "M&B's interim results show a strong operational performance prior to lockdown and highlight how well positioned the business is to recover strongly on reopening."
Engineering giant Meggitt said it expects revenue for the past quarter to fall sharply after the mass grounding of planes during the coronavirus pandemic hit its civil aerospace business.
The UK firm, which supplies components for the aerospace and defence market, said it expects civil aerospace revenues to have halved over the past three months due to travel restrictions.
READ MORE: ‘Sombre picture’ of scale of the challenges for Scottish economy and 'clear warning' on unemployment
It projected that group organic revenues will have tumbled by 30% for the period, amid a solid performance by its defence arm.
The defence business is expected to deliver revenue growth in the mid-single digits, while Meggitt said it continues to see "good order flow" and believes demand in the division will remain robust through 2020.
The group said it made it "good progress" in executing plans to cut costs and cash expenditure, amid the "significant slowdown" in the aerospace sector.
During the second quarter, the majority of its manufacturing facilities were open with around two-thirds of global employees working at sites, with the rest either working from home or furloughed.
Meggitt said energy revenues are also expected to be "somewhat softer" for the past quarter due to declines in the power generation and oil sectors.
The London-listed group added that it is experiencing initial signs of recovery in commercial aerospace, but that uncertainty and risk related to the pandemic remains for the second half of the year.
In April, Meggitt announced that it will cut around 1,800 jobs from its global workforce as part of its plans to slash costs.
It said it now expects to secure "higher savings than originally planned" from its efforts to reduce costs.
The company added that it is on track to reduce cash outflows by around £400 million to £450 million for the year.
Shares in Meggitt moved 8% higher to 329.6p in early trading.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article