B&M Bargains sets sights on 400 stores as profits soar in downturn

According to figures filed at Companies House, profits in the year to December 31 rocketed 91.6 per cent to £9.9m, on sales of £255.9m - a 97 per cent year-on-year uplift. During the year the retailer increased its stores from 49 to 89, expanding for the first time into Scotland and South Wales.

The Blackpool-based retailer has since added a further 60 stores and will open eight more this year.

Managing director Simon Arora said: “We see no reason why we shouldn’t have 400 stores across the UK - we’ve been opening stores at the rate of three or four a week since the beginning of the year and we’ve moved from being a regional retailer into an operator with a more national base.” He added: “We read that 11 per cent of all retail units are empty and we’re just taking advantage of that.”

B&M will not open any stores in the last quarter of the year as it focuses on sales in the run-up to Christmas.

Trading in the first half of this year had been “very positive, with strong like-for-like growth”, said Arora.

As well as being strongly positioned at the value end of the market, he highlighted that more than half of B&M’s shoppers are over 56 - the “fastest growing demographic”.

Retail Knowledge Bank senior partner Robert Clark said: “I think the word is spreading about them. Obviously they are growing quickly and scale helps. Clearly it is buying well and the recession, as has happened with Aldi, encourages people to go and take a look at it. This is a regional retailer that is doing exceptionally well.”