Primark makes its Georgia debut with a 26,000-square-foot store at Sugarloaf Mills

Primark will open its first Georgia store on September 8 at Sugarloaf Mills, the Simon-owned super-regional center at 5900 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville, about 30 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. The store will carry more than 26,000 square feet of retail selling space, according to the company's August 25 announcement, and a second Georgia location is already lined up at 3450 Wrightsboro Road in Augusta, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Sugarloaf Mills will be Primark's 47th U.S. store, and it lands just five days after the Irish value retailer's Minnesota debut at Mall of America on September 3, Chain Store Age reported.

The Georgia opening is the latest step in a U.S. buildout that Primark has been pursuing since it entered the country in Boston in 2015. The Dublin-based chain, a division of Associated British Foods, operates more than 480 stores across 19 countries and sells only in physical stores, with no e-commerce operation. Its American footprint has been concentrated in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but the past year has brought a steady march into new states, including Indiana in July at Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis, Minnesota this week and now Georgia. Primark has said in the past that it wants to reach 60 U.S. stores by the end of 2026, and the Sugarloaf Mills and Augusta deals show the company still working toward that number.

Sugarloaf Mills is a familiar kind of box for Primark: a large, enclosed, value-oriented center with off-price anchors and outlet tenants in Gwinnett County, one of metro Atlanta's fastest-growing suburbs. The store will stock the chain's full range of women's, men's and kids' apparel plus home and beauty, and the company is leaning on price-point marketing for the launch, with women's denim from $12, men's tees at $5, kids' sweatshirts at $8 and Atlanta Hawks and Falcons merchandise from $16, according to the press release.

"Our expansion into the state of Georgia is something we're extremely excited about," said Kevin Tulip, president of Primark US, in the announcement. "We're thrilled to bring the residents of Atlanta Primark's signature everyday essentials at affordable prices."

The Augusta store, at a Wrightsboro Road address that sits along the city's main retail corridor, is described as soon to follow, though Primark has not given an opening date.

The U.S. remains a small but fast-growing slice of the Primark business. In ABF's July trading update, the company reported U.S. sales up 16% in its fiscal third quarter and like-for-like sales up 14%, against a group-wide like-for-like decline of 2.2%. The U.S. accounted for about 6% of Primark's sales in the period, and ABF counted 41 U.S. stores at that point, including three that opened during the quarter. The company singled out its first Manhattan store, opened in May, as having "started strongly."

That American growth is a bright spot for a parent that has been managing softer trading in the U.K. and continental Europe, and it comes with the usual value-retail caveats. ABF CEO George Weston has acknowledged that U.S. trading "has bounced around a bit," the AJC reported, and the paper noted that some Southern stores, including Memphis and Nashville, have felt pressure from cost-of-living strain on their customer base. Primark has guided to an adjusted operating margin of roughly 10% for the full fiscal year.

Primark's site selection continues to favor established, high-traffic enclosed centers rather than open-air power centers, and Sugarloaf Mills, Mall of America and Castleton Square all fit that pattern. Landlords with vacated department-store or junior-anchor boxes in the 25,000-to-40,000-square-foot range should see the chain as a credible backfill candidate as it moves south and west.

The Georgia entry also marks a shift toward the Sun Belt for a retailer that has spent a decade clustering around the Northeast. Two stores in one state at launch, with Augusta following Lawrenceville, suggests Primark is now planning markets rather than one-off stores, which typically means more deals in a shorter window once a distribution and marketing base is in place.

The counter-consideration is the customer. Primark's model depends on high volumes at very low price points with no online channel to offset a weak store. The strong U.S. comps in the July update are encouraging, but the mixed performance the AJC flagged in Memphis and Nashville is a reminder that not every Southern market has behaved the same way.

Finally, watch whether Primark reaches its 60-store target on schedule. At 47 stores after Sugarloaf Mills, with Augusta still to come, the chain would need a busy back half of the year. The cadence of announcements this month says the pipeline is real, even if the calendar is tight.