Irish clothing and accessories retailer Primark has appointed Paula Dumont López as the company’s new Head of Women’s Fashion. She is expected to take up her new job in January 2018. With an impressive track record, Paula will be responsible for overseeing women’s wear production and design for the international and domestic markets.

Paula recently served as Senior Vice President and Head of Esprit Woman since the last four years. Earlier this year, rumours abounded that she would be joining New Look as Chief Creative Officer, but the announcement was dismissed as just that, rumours, after CEO Anders Kristiansen, who appointed her, resigned his position at the company. The design executive joins Primark with her extensive experience in design as well as merchandising.

Before her work at Esprit, she was working at Inditex-owned Zara where she joined as a fabric buyer and later progressed to Head of Product for the Zara Basic vertical in her ten-year tenure. While several of its contemporaries continue to struggle in an increasingly swamped marketplace, the budget retailer Primark reported 19 per cent increase in sales as against the previous year. This helped raise the Group to a 15 per cent overall rise in revenue to touch £ 15.4 billion for the year to September.