Revenue at Primark's Penneys stores in Ireland bounced back by 44% to €693m in the year to last September, according to accounts just lodged with the Companies Registration Office.
The performance contributed to Primark Limited making a profit before tax of €394m.
That’s a nearly 21-fold increase on the result recorded over the previous twelve months when it made a pre-tax profit of just €19m, due to the effect of the pandemic.
Total turnover came in at almost €3.2 billion, up from nearly €2.4 billion the year before.
The figure is made up of a mixture of trading at Irish Penneys retail stores, intercompany supplies of inventory to other entities in the Primark group and franchise income.
The retail part of the Irish business recorded revenue of €693 million, up from €482 million a year earlier.
"Irish stores trading performance was strong in the current year as trading recovered from Covid-19 in the prior period," the company said in the accounts.
However, compared to before the pandemic in 2019, the performance was down -4%.
Turnover from intercompany supply of inventory rose to €1.81 billion from €1.62 billion arising from a higher supply.
Franchise income was €670.1m, up from €264m over the previous period, as stores recovered from closures during the pandemic.
The company paid €52.4m in tax during the period, up from €4.4m, leaving a profit after tax of €341m.
A dividend of €475m was paid. Staff numbers during the period reached 6,483, up from 6,275 during the last financial year.
The accounts also said that gross profit margin rose from 5.9% to 18% due to increased revenue for the period, primarily due to a sharp increased in sales densities as Covid restrictions were lifted and normal customer behaviour resumed.
"The benefit of this normalisation of gross profit was partially offset by high inflation of input costs, such as energy and labour costs," the director said.
The company added that full year sales for Ireland were 34% ahead of the prior year.
Primark Limited said it intends to invest over €250m in the Irish market over the next nine years, creating 700 jobs here over the next three years and increasing selling space by 20%.
The developments include a new store in The Square Tallaght, which opened in September of last year, a relocated store in Carlow which opened in June of 2022, a relocated store in Dundrum which opened last month and redevelopments of existing stores in Galway, Clonmel and Cork.
It is also developing a new warehousing and distribution facility in Newbridge, investing €75m.
"We have developed a strong pipeline of new stores, in line with our ambition to grow to some 530 stores by the end of 2026 financial year, including 60 stores in the US by September 2026," the directors said.
"We plan to open 27 new stores in the 2022/23 financial year with 20 new stores opened by end of June 2023."
