Primark to slash 150 jobs across international workforce

Budget retailer Primark is preparing to cut approximately 150 jobs across locations in Ireland, the UK and the US. Around 100 of these redundancies are expected to roll out at the company’s international headquarters in Dublin, reflecting 7 percent of its 1,500 strong workforce in the city.

The proposed job cuts are said to be in the People & Culture, Finance and Procurement departments and reflect Primark’s intention to appoint a third-party to oversee certain support functions. India’s Accenture has been named as the third-party provider.

Shift to third-party operations provider prompts cuts

In a statement to FashionUnited, a spokesperson for Primark confirmed that the company was exploring “how resourcing via external partners could help support our operations”. “As we continue to grow internationally, we need to evolve our operating model to best support this ambition,” the statement noted.

It continued: "As part of this, we are now proposing that a number of support function activities move to a third party and we are beginning a collective consultation. This unfortunately will impact a number of Primark colleagues primarily in our head office operations."

The spokesperson added that the decision was not taken lightly, commenting: "We understand how difficult this news is for those colleagues affected and we’ll be working to support them as best we can.”

This article was updated June 26, 11:00 CEST following confirmation from Primark to FashionUnited on the job cuts, and the acquisition of a statement from a spokesperson. Further information on the impacted departments and percentage of impacted employees has been included or specified.