ABF Associated British Foods Plc

By James R. Hagerty 

Starting with a single store in Dublin, Ireland, 50 years ago, Arthur Ryan built the international Primark fashion retailing chain, where shoppers can find a trendy women's top for less than the price of a fast-food meal.

Owned by Associated British Foods PLC, Primark now has more than 370 stores, mostly in Britain, Ireland and continental Europe, but including nine in the U.S., where three more are planned.

Pricing frequently undercuts other sellers of ephemeral fashion, including H&M and Forever 21. When Primark opened a store on London's Oxford Street in 2007, shoppers were so eager to paw the merchandise that they caved in one of the glass doors. Police arrived to restore order.

Mr. Ryan remained discreetly in the background. The son of an insurance clerk from Cork, Ireland, he got early experience as a necktie buyer at the Swan & Edgar department store in London. In 1969, he started what is now Primark with a store called Penneys, no relation to the U.S. retailer J.C. Penney. The stores still carry the Penneys name in Ireland but are known as Primark elsewhere.

Mr. Ryan, who died July 8 at age 83 at his home in the Ballsbridge section of Dublin, stepped down as chief executive of Primark in 2009 but remained chairman.

One of Primark's quirks is that it doesn't sell online, though it does promote its products heavily on social media.

Mr. Ryan made a rare public appearance in 2010 when the trade publication Retail Week gave him an award. "I've had an extraordinary career," he said.

Arthur St. John Ryan was born July 19, 1935, and attended school in Dublin. He was working for another Irish retailer in the late 1960s when members of the Weston family, who owned Associated British Foods, recruited him to run the first Penneys store. In the early days, his duties included cleaning the shop at night. "We couldn't afford cleaners, " he said later.

He is survived by his wife, the former Alma Carroll, a onetime pop singer, along with two sisters, four children and nine grandchildren. In 2015, Mr. Ryan's son Barry and a grandson drowned near West Cork, Ireland.

Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 12, 2019 10:44 ET (14:44 GMT)

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