Bargain hunters have boosted sales at B&M, with the discounter committing to opening 45 new British stores this year
The FTSE 100-listed retailer said that group revenue rose by 10.1 per cent to £5.5billion over the past year.
On home turf, B&M’s UK division, where the group does the bulk of its trading, saw sales climb 8.5 per cent to £4.41billion.
B&M has already opened 47 new stores over the past year, having bought out some of Wilko’s closed shops, which it said were ‘performing ahead of expectations’.
B&M has already opened 47 new stores over the past year and promises to deliver more
The company’s French division also saw a 19.2 per cent rise to £514million whilst its Heron Foods division saw sales soar by 15.3 per cent to £560million.
In a full-year trading update. covering the 53 weeks to 30 March 2024, Liverpool-based B&M said growth had benefitted from an extra week of trading and an early Easter compared to 2023.
Alex Russo, chief executive of B&M, said: ‘The business and team are well set up for the year ahead, our pipeline remains on track to open not less than 45 UK B&M stores in each of the next two financial years and our French and Heron businesses continue to demonstrate significant profitable growth potential.’
A key part of the retailer’s success lies in the retailer’s ability to source its huge range of merchandise directly from B&M’s own Asia-based buying operation, which it says gives it an edge on design and value.
After Wilko’s collapse last summer, B&M snapped up 51 of the homeware chain’s stores from administrators in a £13million deal.
Then, in November 2023, B&M said it expected to launch at least 125 more shops across the UK over the coming three years.
At the same time, the business expanded its long-term domestic store target from 950 to 1,200.
The company operates around 717 UK shops under the B&M brand, as well as 122 French outlets and more than 330 stores under the ‘Heron Foods’ and ‘B&M Express’ names.
Despite the positive results, B&M shares were down 1.8 per cent to 496.50p in Tuesday morning trading and have fallen 11 per cent this year.
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