B&M posts drop in profit as it reviews German business
B&M’s adjusted pre-tax profit has dropped by 2.8% to £96 million following a disappointing first half performance at its Jawoll business in Germany.
In the 26 weeks to 29 September, group pre-tax profit decreased by 70.5% to £32.2 million when an impairment charge of £59.5 million relating to Jawoll was included.
Meanwhile, group revenues climbed by 12.4% to £1.76 billion.
Looking at B&M’s UK business, like-for-like sales edged up 3.7% in the period while revenue increased by 13.8%.
Simon Arora, B&M chief executive, said: “We have delivered a solid overall first half performance driven by our core B&M UK stores business which constitutes 86% of group sales. Our existing stores performed consistently well through the last two quarters, generating half year like-for-likes of 3.7%. The current crop of new stores also achieved especially strong results.”
Arora said Jawoll struggled against trading and operational issues in the period and that the B&M board is now reviewing the business to determine its future.
The company said UK like-for-like sales growth in the third quarter to date has been solid.
Arora added: “We are well placed for the golden quarter in our main B&M UK stores business. Despite the continued uncertainty in the economic environment generally, we are very proud to say that each of the top five store opening days in our history have all been in stores we have opened in the last 12 months.”
