B&M Bargains profits grow 140% in 2009

The 197-store retailer more than doubled pre-tax profits from £14m to £33.8m in the year to December 31 - a 140% increase.

Like-for-like sales jumped 9% while revenue surged from £255.9m to £426.7m. In the current year to date, like-for-like sales rose 8% while revenue jumped 38%.

Joint managing director Simon Arora said his aim was to lift B&M’s turnover to £1bn. He added that the chain was still benefiting from consumers trading down in the recession, but that the business was “starting to demonstrate that the model works across the UK. We’re in as many middle class locations as we are working class”.

The retailer wants to have 400 stores within five years, opening shops at a rate of 30 to 40 a year. B&M Bargains grew its portfolio from 89 stores to 149 last year, and will have 220 stores by the end of 2010, both in town centres and in retail parks.

Arora said B&M was “not currently” looking at any businesses to acquire and had ruled out a sale of the business in the near future. Value players such as Poundland and Card Factory have recently been sold in private equity deals.

B&M Bargains opened its first store in the southeast in March, in Hemel Hempstead. Arora said he is “delighted” with its performance.

“We are finding a virtuous circle - as we open more sites, more customers become aware of us and have greater confidence in the brand,” he explained, adding that the retailer does “not spend a penny on advertising”.

“We put the money we save on advertising into our prices, which speak for themselves,” he said.

The retailer has hired a new distribution director, Craig May, who has previously worked at Iceland and TJ Morris, which trades as Home Bargains.

B&M Bargains is in the process of opening a new £24m warehouse facility in Speke, Liverpool, to serve its growing store network.

Its original warehouse, in Blackpool, will remain open but as a smaller operation. Job cuts are expected.