Eoin Tonge: The finance chief steering Primark toward life without ABF

On April 21, the British food and retail group Associated British Foods (ABF) confirmed what investors had been circling for months: Primark, the Dublin-headquartered value fashion chain trading as Penneys in Ireland, would be split from the group's food, sugar and grocery businesses and listed as its own FTSE 100 company. The separation, expected to complete by the end of 2027, hands Eoin Tonge, confirmed as Primark's permanent chief executive in March, a company that must justify its own existence to public markets for the first time — at a moment when like-for-like sales were falling and price perception had slipped. "95 percent of what we've got to do here doesn't change if we're public [company] or not," Tonge told the Irish Times days before the announcement. The other 5 percent is the part investors will be watching.