26th May 2016 07:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - B&M European Value Retail SA on Thursday reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year as sales grew on the back of new store openings and it announced payment of a special dividend.
The discount retailer said its pretax profit in the year ended March 26 more than doubled to GBP154.5 million from GBP61.7 million the year before, as revenue grew to GBP2.04 billion from GBP1.65 billion.
B&M said revenue was driven by new store openings, including the annualisation of revenue from the 52 stores opened in the UK in financial 2015 as well as the 74 new stores opened in the UK in financial 2016. B&M now trades from 499 stores in the UK.
Six stores were also opened in Germany in financial 2016, and B&M plans to open a further 19 in the new financial year.
The store openings did, however, hit like-for-like sales where growth slowed to 0.3% from 4.4% the prior year. Slowing growth was also against a backdrop of deflationary pressures on grocery sales, B&M added.
In addition to sales growth, profit was also helped by the fact the prior year faced exceptional costs relating to its initial public offering. Excluding those costs, adjusted pretax profit still rose to GBP161.4 million from GBP135.0 million.
B&M will pay a total dividend of 4.8 pence, which is up on the 3.4p it paid the year before, as well as a special dividend of 10p.
"We are confident that we now have an even stronger platform from which to deliver further growth in the current year and into the long-term, both in the UK and Germany. Whilst we are mindful that the general economic outlook is uncertain, and the market remains fiercely competitive, we have made a solid start to the new financial year. We believe our unique business model places us in a strong position and we look forward to the year ahead with confidence," Chief Executive Simon Arora said in a statement.
Shares in B&M were trading up 2.5% at 289.40 pence on Thursday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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