Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
B&M shares dropped on Wednesday as it announced a sharp profits reversal for the last financial year as like-for-like sales at its core UK operation dropped.
At 311p per share, the FTSE 250 retailer were last dealing 6.3% lower in midweek trade.
Revenues rose 3.7% in the 12 months to March 2025 to £5.6 billion, the discount retailer said, though growth was driven primarily from new store openings.
Last year the company opened 38 new stores at its core B&M UK unit, and 55 across the broader group (which includes B&M in France and Heron Foods).
On a constant currency basis, turnover was up 4% year on year.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) ticked 0.6% higher to £620 million. This was at the higher end of the £605 million – £625 million that B&M predicted during its latest forecast downgrade in February.
However, the company endured a 7% reversal in operating profit, to £566 million. On an adjusted basis operating profit declined 1.8% “due to higher depreciation from our asset base,” to £591 million.
Pre-tax profit slumped 13.2% from fiscal 2024, to £431 million.
B&M raised the full-year dividend to 15p per share from 14.7p in financial 2024.
Core Struggles
At B&M UK – which accounts for approximately 80% of group revenues – turnover rose 3.8% to £4.5 billion, though annual growth cooled from 6.2% in the prior 12 months. LFL sales were down 3.1%.
The business said that its performance in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) categories “did not meet our internal expectations, showing negative LFL performance in both sales value and units.”
Sales growth at B&M France slowed to 7.8% in financial 2025 from 16.7% previously, with total revenues coming in at £542 million. But like-for-like sales improved 2.1% year on year.
Heron Foods sales edged 0.6% lower to £546 million, turning from growth of 13.1% the previous year.
Challenging Conditions
B&M described trading conditions in its critical UK market as “challenging,” noting that “a very subdued garden season, heightened consumer caution, limited real wage growth … and the timing of Easter” all took their toll on sales.
The FTSE 250 firm said that the current financial year will be impacted by “retail sector-wide challenges of increased minimum wage costs, higher employee national insurance and other taxes, and inflation on input costs.”
However, it added that “work continues to reduce the impact of these pressures, through driving productivity improvements and sales volume growth.”
At B&M UK, the company aims to open 45 gross new stores to match last year’s total. It eventually hope to have 1,200 of these branded outlets up and running, up from 777 today.
B&M announced in May that retail veteran Tjeerd Jegen will take the reins as chief executive on 16 June. He was formerly CEO of Dutch bicycle and bike parts manufacturer Accell Group.
Former permanent chief Alex Russo left the company in late April after a period of sustained sales pressure.
Profits Growth Predicted
Analyst Russell Pointon of Edison commented that B&M’s results “demonstrate the wider macroeconomic challenges as well as execution issues on its own part.”
For the current financial period, he anticipated commented that “minimum-wage and input-cost inflation [will be] balanced by productivity gains and ongoing store expansion in the UK and France.”
Pointon added that “B&M’s disciplined cost base, robust value proposition, and clear remediation plans for underperforming categories mean it is well-placed to deliver modest profit growth even as wider retail headwinds persist.”
