B&M profits jump as store expansion fuels full-year sales growth

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Full-year adjusted pre-tax profits jump 19.5% to £161.4m
Total sales surge 23.6% to £2.04bn
Like-for-likes edge up 0.3%

Value operator B&M has reported a surge in full-year profits and sales as it opened a record number stores in its last financial year.

The retailer, whose chairman is former Tesco boss Terry Leahy, revealed that adjusted pre-tax profits jumped 19.5% to £161.4m in the year to March 26.

B&M, which has been eyeing BHS stores, opened a “record” 79 shops in the year, which helped boost total sales by 23.6% to £2.04bn. Like-for-likes edged up 0.3%.

Leahy branded it “another year of strong progress”.

The group also cut its net debt to £354.2m from £381m the prior year and declared a special dividend of 10p per share, equating to £100m in total.

Chief executive Simon Arora said: “B&M’s disruptive pricing, unique sourcing model and range discipline has continued to drive our business forward to win market share.”

B&M now has more than 500 UK stores and has a pipeline of 50 new stores in its current financial year. It is also looking to open 19 new stores in Germany.

Arora added: “In the UK there are many locations where we don’t currently trade but would like to and in Germany we are beginning to accelerate our pace of expansion, and we continue to see attractive returns from our new store programme.”

B&M said it had made a “solid” start to its current financial year, but flagged that the market “remains extremely competitive”.