Times are tough on the high street and downright grim at the discount fashion end. Some clothing retailers talk of sales falling off a cliff in recent weeks.

Yet nobody seems to have told Arthur Ryan. The 72-year-old Irishman runs Primark, which yesterday revealed underlying sales growth of 4 per cent in the first half and profits up more than fifth.

In present conditions, a remarkable achievement.

But then this is a company that has taken on two of the world's most formidable retailers - Tesco and Asda's parent Wal-Mart - and won. In the process it has built its share of British clothing sales to 10 per cent, taking it to within a few underpants of the leader, Marks & Spencer.

Primark prices are amazing. Even American visitors, for whom pretty much everything in Britain appears astonishingly expensive, are impressed.

Yet Mr Ryan's team are able to combine that with strong styles and fast-changing stock, which has won it fans from top fashionistas to footballers' wives.

Even more extraordinary is that Primark is buried in Associated British Foods, the Weston family's sugar and bread giant.

At least it used to be buried, but, thanks to its rapid growth in recent years, it is now an obvious treasure generating more than a third of group profits.

ABF shrugs off calls for Primark to be demerged and it is hard to claim that it has suffered from being part of the group.

In the short term, it may help to offset any margin squeeze caused by surging commodity prices.

ABF has put up bread prices by 14 per cent since the autumn and says that further rises are inevitable. At this rate a loaf will soon cost as much as a sailor-style shirt dress.

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