Primark will open its Wenceslas Square flagship this month, after almost a year’s delay

The long-awaited opening of clothing retailer Primark on Prague’s Wenceslas Square will take place June 17 at 9 am. The retailer is the anchor tenant in the newly built The Flow building. The opening has been expected in the second half of 2020, but had been delayed due the pandemic.

The Wenceslas Square location will be the Irish chain’s first store in the Czech Republic. The flagship location will offer fashion, beauty products, and home accessories on three floors covering 4,600 square meters. Approximately 300 jobs will be created there. The store will be open Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, on Sunday between 10 am to 8 pm.

“This is an important new market for the company, as we continue to expand in Central and Eastern Europe,” Maciej Podwojski, area manager for Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, said.

The store will offer items from the spring/summer collection with a palette of natural and earthy tones and crochet patterns, according to a press release. There will also be an expanding range of sustainable fashion under the Primark Cares brand.

The new Prague store will be the chain’s 396th, joining other locations in the region, including a store in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and two Polish locations — in Warsaw and the newly opened outlet in Poznan. The Czech market is the 14th in which the chain will operate.

The Wenceslas Square outlet is located in The Flow building, which was completed in July 2020. The building design comes British architectural firm Chapman Taylor, with inspiration from the lines of St. Vitus’ Cathedral and images of burning candles and flowering plants. It was originally called the Flower House (Květinový dům), before being changed to Flow Building, after developer Flow East.

For the Czech market, another store in the Olympia shopping center in Brno, South Moravia, is expected to open in 2022. The company is also planning to expand to Slovakia, where it has recently concluded a lease agreement for the opening of the first local store.

Primark has long been popular with Czech consumers. Before the pandemic, buses from Czech cities such as Prague, Brno or Hradec Králové, went to the nearest foreign stores. People especially appreciate the favorable prices of goods.

The company states that it achieves them using a different strategy than that chosen by other clothing chains. They have almost no advertising, including television, and only sell products in brick-and-mortar stores. They don’t have an e-shop or a delivery network.

Founded in Dublin in 1969, Primark currently operates 396 stores, counting the new Prague location, with a sales area of over 1.53 square kilometers. Aside from its home market of Ireland and now the Czech Republic, it is present in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, France, the United States, Italy, Poland, and Slovenia.