B&M posts steep drop in profits in ‘difficult’ year
B&M has posted a steep drop in annual profits after a “difficult” year with rising costs and a “challenging market”.
In the 52 weeks to 28 March, adjusted pre-tax profit declined by 37.7% to £284 million and adjusted EBITDA dropped by 25.9% to £459 million driven by lower trading margins and operating cost inflation in the UK.
Subscribe to TRBThis came despite group revenues increasing by 3.6% to £5.77 billion as the retailer continued to invest in opening new UK stores.
Meanwhile, B&M UK increased its total sales by 2.9% in the year, although like-for-like sales were broadly flat.
B&M France fared better with total sales growth of 13.4% and a like-for-like sales increase of 2.9% following higher transaction volumes and 12 new store openings.
Tjeerd Jegen, B&M chief executive, said: “FY26 was a difficult year that saw profits fall due to a challenging market and execution issues.
“We launched our Back to B&M Basics plan in October to restore like-for-like sales growth at B&M UK, which was flat overall versus FY25 while showing sequential improvement.
“The past six months has seen us sharpen our pricing, improve on shelf availability in best-selling brands and revamp our in-store promotions.”
Looking ahead, B&M said the current financial year will be one of investment as it looks to deliver growth under the Back to B&M Basics plan and balance new store growth with investing in store formats.
Jegen added: “We are confident we can offset rising energy costs in the year ahead through cost mitigation, the benefits of which will flow through to our bottom line once we have returned B&M UK like-for-like sales to growth.
“In the medium term, we continue to see no reason why B&M UK cannot return to double-digit EBITDA margins.”
