12th Nov 2026 10:11
(Alliance News) - B&M European Value Retail PLC on Thursday reported better-than-expected first half profit, and sales, as growth picked up in the UK faster than forecast.
In response, shares in the Jersey-registered variety goods discount retailer which operates under the B&M and Heron Foods brands leapt 15% to 322.20 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
B&M said pretax profit rose 54% to GBP115 million in the 26 weeks to September 26 from GBP75 million the year prior.
Adjusted pretax profit before tax jumped 17% to GBP121 million from GBP103 million, ahead of GBP87 million consensus, with adjusted diluted earnings per share of 8.9 pence, up 24% from 7.2p on-year, and above 6.5p consensus.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 6.0% to GBP203 million from GBP191 million the year before, also ahead of GBP184 million consensus.
B&M said it is targetting a range of GBP450 million to GBP500 million in adjusted Ebitda for the full-year compared to GBP459 million the year prior. Ahead of the results, consensus looked for a figure of GBP466 million.
Revenue grew 3.6% to GBP2.85 billion from GBP2.75 billion, or by 3.5% at constant currency, against GBP2.83 billion consensus.
B&M said all three businesses, B&M UK, B&M France and Heron Foods, saw like-for-like sales growth in the period.
B&M UK total sales grew 2.4% in the first half, with LFL sales up 0.4%, including 3.2% LFL growth in the second quarter, driven by General Merchandise. Second quarter LFL growth was well ahead of 1.0% consensus.
B&M France delivered 14% total sales growth, driven by strong LFL performance of 5.9% and 6.5% in the second quarter.
Heron Foods total sales grew 3.0%, with LFL sales growth of 2.9%.
Post-tax free cash flow improved to GBP132 million from GBP51 million and net debt fell to GBP613 million from GBP859 million on-year.
The interim dividend was boosted to 3.6p per share from 3.5p.
Chief Executive Officer Tjeerd Jegen said: "Back to B&M Basics is starting to deliver. Over the past year, we have sharpened our pricing, improved the on-shelf availability of our best-selling brands, revamped our in-store promotions and reduced [stock keeping units] count across our stores."
Jegen said the next phase of the turnaround at B&M will involve boosting productivity in UK stores through new store formats.
He said sales data from early trials have been encouraging and "we plan to increase investment in re-laying and refitting stores in H2, balancing this with a slower pace of UK store rollouts in FY27."
A new "B&M 2.0 concept store" launched in Wigan late August is seeing "encouraging early trading", B&M said.
"We are restoring group profitability through re-establishing UK LFL sales growth and improving our UK category margin while managing continued cost headwinds and investing in our business. This will support our ambition of achieving low double-digit adjusted Ebitda margins for B&M UK in the medium term as an outcome," CEO Jegen said.
B&M said early 'Golden Quarter' trading has been positive in each of its three operating businesses, with continued LFL growth at B&M UK.
In addition, it confirmed that incoming Chief Financial Officer Atheeq Akbar will start on January 25.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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