B&M admits it must do better as profits slump

B&M conceded its performance “could have been better” last year as both profits and like-for-like sales took a hit.

In B&M’s UK stores, like-for-like sales fell 3.1% in the year to 29 March, although the opening of new stores helped offset the group’s total revenue to rise 3.7% to £5.6bn.

Its pre-tax profit fell 13.2% to £431m, due to a depreciation in assets and higher interest and finance costs, the company said.

Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at £620m. Former CEO Alex Russo stepped down in February after the company issued a profit warning that annual EBITDA would fall between £605m to £625m.

At the time, B&M said the downgrade reflected the current trading performance of the business, an uncertain economic outlook, and the potential impact of exchange rate volatility on the valuation of its stock.

“The group’s sales performance, particularly within the B&M UK business, was below expectations,” B&M said in its preliminary results on Tuesday.

B&M recognised that although it was a challenging year for UK retailers with heightened consumer caution and limited wage growth, “operational execution could have been better and this is being addressed in current trading plans”.

Fmcg performed particularly poorly with both volume and value like-for-like sales falling. B&M said while improvement in trading performance is definitely required, it has kept a relative pricing advantage against the major supermarkets with very limited inflation.

In the first few months of the new financial year, it has focused on product ranging, in-store merchandising, and space allocation across key categories like food, cleaning, and health & beauty, to try and boost sales.

By contrast, its performance in general merchandise was robust with like-for-like sales rising last year as the business passed through price cuts particularly in homeware, toys, and electricals.

Wayne Brown, an analyst at Panmure Liberum, said the “results do not contain many surprises and are broadly in line”.

He added: “Outlook remains uncertain with productivity gains needed to offset cost pressures, but management state these are in the FY26 consensus – expect no change to consensus numbers.”

B&M announced last month that international retail veteran Tjeerd Jegen will take over as CEO from 16 June.