Primark is to close all its UK stores amid a stark drop in demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
All 189 stores across the country are expected to close on Sunday and not reopen on Monday.
Its parent company has also temporarily closed stores in Europe and cancelled all future orders from suppliers.
“This situation has been so fast-moving,” said Paul Marchant, Primark chief executive.
READ MORE: Primark warns coronavirus may cause stock shortages in China
“We could not have foreseen that over the course of a week, our stores in every country in which we operate, with the exception of the UK, have had to close. We have therefore been left with no option but to take this action.
He added: “This is unprecedented action for unprecedented and frankly unimaginable times.”
READ MORE: Primark forced to close stores as coronavirus restrictions imposed overseas
It comes after other high street giants, including John Lewis, also announced closures.
The department store chain will close all 50 shops temporarily from Monday for the first time since it opened 155 years ago.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel