Primark finance boss bullish on coronavirus supply chain issues

Bason said the business has 500 suppliers in China that provide stock to five consolidation centres that then gets taken to port.

“[Stock] takes a month to get to the UK, so we’ve got some time here compared to those who are air freighting straight to the UK,” Bason said.

“In Hubei province, we’ve only got nine suppliers so it’s a very small part for us that is affected.”

Bason said Primark has a few options to mitigate any supply chain issues from China.

“Primark is of such a scale that we know factories in South East Asia, Turkey and Eastern Europe and we can go there. There might be certain specialities from certain factories in China that might be problematic going forward, but it’s limited,” he added.

Bason explained while there will be some problems around cost, the retailer “will take the pain not the customer”.

“We’ve got form on dealing with this,” he said. “With both the cotton price increase in 2011 and the devaluation of sterling after the Brexit vote we didn’t move our pricing,” he said.

However, Bason said the fashion giant has felt some impact of the disease as factory staff struggle to get back to work following closures and quarantines across the country.

He added: “There are more and more people going back to work – [albeit] from a low level – so the product that is being made available to us at the consolidation centres is improving.”

Although Bason said “it could take a turn for the worse where the number of people infected goes up”, if the work to contain the disease improves the retailer will see an improving trend too.

During its trading update today, Primark said its main priority is the “health and safety of our colleagues and we are taking all possible actions to support them”.