Arthur St. John Ryan is the founder of Primark

Primark

Primark is a clothing retailer, operating over 223 stores in Ireland , the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium...

, an Irish clothing retailer with stores in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Holland, and Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.It trades under the name of Penneys in Ireland. He is currently the chairman and managing director.

Early life

Arthur Ryan was born the son of a Cork born insurance clerk in 1935 and went to the Christian Brothers School on Synge Street. After emigrating to London, he entered the genteel world of gentlemen's tailoring as a tie buyer at Swan & Edgar. He also worked for London fashion wholesaler Carr & McDonald. From there it was back to Dublin, and a job at Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt.

He is currently to married to former entertainer Alma Carroll.
He is an intensely private man, living in one of Dublin's best-protected houses, he never gives interviews and is rarely seen in public without bodyguards. His great fear is kidnap – a real enough threat for Irish retail magnates during the Troubles. In 1981, the IRA snatched department store boss Ben Dunne; two years later, they tried to kidnap Galen Weston, scion of the Canadian family behind Primark's owner, food and retail conglomerate Associated British Foods (ABF). Ryan still takes no chances. "His daily schedule is kept secret from all but his closest aides."

Career

He opened the first Penneys shop on Mary Street in Dublin in 1969. Subsequently, in 1974, he took the model to Britain – renaming the stores Primark to avoid legal problems with US chain JC Penney. The major turnaround came in 2005, when Primark acquired a huge portfolio of Littlewoods stores. Meanwhile, close attention to catwalk trends made it chic as well as cheap. It went from being the "shop that nobody admitted going to" to a Mecca for celebrity shoppers. It was "Primani", darling – or "Pradamark". It now accounts for over a third of ABF's operating profits. In 2009, Ryan gave up his day-to-day control of the firm as chief executive, but became Chairman instead.