B&M has recorded an uplift in sales over the festive period, although boss Simon Arora says the value retailer posted “a slower performance than anticipated.”

The value retailer reported a 9.3% uplift in group revenue to £1.2bn over the 13 weeks to December 28, driven by an 8.8% rise in sale across the retailer’s UK B&M store estate to £957.4m.

The retailer’s like-for-like sales edges up 0.3% during the period, which the retailer attributed to “a challenging broader retail market and our decision to not engage in any early discounting activity.”

B&M opened a net of 12 new stores during the period alongside five new Heron Food stores, which reported “solid like-for-like sales growth” year-on-year.

Chief executive Simon Arora said: “Against the backdrop of a difficult UK retail environment with reduced shopper footfall and political uncertainty, our core B&M UK business generated continued growth and delivered a record level of peak season sales. Cumulatively, B&M UK has achieved +2.3% like-for-like sales growth during the financial year to date, albeit with a slower performance than anticipated during the run up to Christmas.

“Overall the business delivered a good quarter operationally. Costs were well controlled and, combined with our usual strong focus on cash gross margins, yielded a profitable outcome. We were also able to exit the period with normal seasonal inventory levels. Our new store programme delivered 15 gross and 12 net new B&M UK stores in the quarter, and this year’s openings as a whole have performed better than expectations.

 

 

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