Primark was rocked on Monday as owner Associated British Foods said that the boss of the Anglo-Irish budget fashion, beauty and homewares retailer, Paul Marchant, has quit with immediate effect. This comes after an allegation made about his behaviour towards an individual in a social environment.
Photo, Sandra Halliday
It’s a big deal for both Primark and ABF with the retail chain contributing about half of the profits for its parent company and that strength seemingly set to expand as it rolls out more stores across Europe and the US.
The group, which is to release its next set of results — for the first half — late next month, said Eoin Tonge, ABF finance director, will act as Primark CEO on an interim basis. And Joana Edwards, ABF group financial controller, will step into his finance role for now.
The company stressed that “both executives have the experience to perform these roles well”. Tonge has been at ABF since January 2023 and before that was at M&S, for almost three years, joining at CFO and becoming group CFO/chief strategy officer.
ABF had earlier launched an investigation that was carried out by external lawyers, into an allegation made by the unnamed individual about his behaviour towards her. Marchant “cooperated with the investigation, acknowledged his error of judgement and accepts that his actions fell below the standards expected by ABF. He has made an apology to the individual concerned, the ABF board and also to his Primark colleagues and others connected to the business”.
ABF CEO George Weston said: “I am immensely disappointed… we believe that high standards of integrity are essential. Acting responsibly is the only way to build and manage a business over the long term. Colleagues and others must be treated with respect and dignity. Our culture has to be, and is, bigger than any one individual.”
It’s a major disaster for Marchant himself who’s led Primark for over a decade and seen it go from strength to strength, despite the interruption to its business during the pandemic.
Before jointing the company in 2009, he was COO of New Look for three years and prior to that spent eight years as trading director of Debenhams so is clearly a fixture in the UK fashion industry.
