Like-for-like sales
Also: comparable sales, LFL, same-store sales
Like-for-like sales measure the change in revenue from stores and channels that traded in both periods, usually at constant currency, excluding openings, closures and stores whose space changed materially. Each company sets its own rules on store age, refits and online. The figure isolates demand in the existing estate; it does not show total growth or margin, and one company's definition is not another's.
Store and regional teams are usually managed against like-for-like, because it is the part of growth they control. A change of definition, or a switch to a broader comparable measure, breaks the series, so the prior-year basis has to be checked before two periods are compared.
Primark's like-for-like sales fell 2.2% in the 16 weeks to 20 June 2026 (down 2.3% a year earlier), while new stores contributed 5% to growth and sales rose 4% at actual currency.