Primark's queues of shoppers on reopening at stores such as Norwich helped soften the blow of a 17pc drop in sales during Covid.

The store, which doesn't have an online offering, saw adjusted profits before tax down 50pc to £319m in the six months to February 27.

When it reopened on April 12 in Haymarket, some people so eager to get a bargain queued outside from 3am. By opening time, shoppers were queued up as far as the Forum and this continued throughout the first day.

Primark's owner ABF, Associated British Foods, also revealed it will repay £121m in furlough cash claimed for workers in the current financial year, including £72m to the UK government, and will not make any further claims under various government job retention schemes.
Following the decision to repay taxpayer cash, the company also announced it will pay a 6.2p-a-share interim dividend to shareholders worth £49m.

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