Today in retail: Thursday’s throng of financial updates

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Today brought a flurry of results as B&M, Pets at Home, Halfords, Card Factory and Conviviality updated the market.

It was the value retailers today that came out on top, with B&M issuing glowing full-year group sales up 19.4% to £2.43bn and pre-tax profits up 18.4% to £182.9m.

Similarly, Card Factory hailed a strong quarter with growing sales – up 6.1% – and continued store expansion.

Meanwhile, the updates from specialist retailers Halfords and Pets at Home were illuminating, if not as glowing.

Halfords – now on the hunt for a new boss in preparation for Jill McDonald’s departure to M&S – said that strengthening its services proposition contributed to a 7.2% sales uplift.

But it warned that the impact of currency headwinds was expected to nearly double next year.

And Pets at Home, from which the City anticipated gloomy news, seems to be out of the doghouse for now, following what chief executive Ian Kellett dubbed “a bit of a blip” in its third quarter.

Its previously flagging core retail sales have been revived since the retailer introduced a new lower price proposition, and continued growth in its maturing services division fuelled a 7.2% jump in group sales.

Quote of the day

“At B&M we know we are at our best when household budgets are under pressure and consumers are looking even harder at making savings … If we carry on like this we’ll run out of stock”

B&M boss Simon Arora on the retailer’s stellar full-year results