B&M profits to fall below pandemic highs

Retailer B&M said profit for its financial year would be below the coronavirus pandemic-driven highs of the past two years as it promoted its finance director Alex Russo to the top job.

Citing an uncertain macroeconomic environment, much higher inflation and the potential effects of customers buying different kinds of products, the variety discounter predicted adjusted underlying profit of £550mn-£600mn for the year to March 26.

That is below the levels reported in the past two years, but still ahead of the £342mn posted for 2020, the last year when sales were not inflated by the effects of Covid-19.

B&M shares fell 8 per cent in early trading on Tuesday.

B&M stores were permitted to remain open through lockdowns in the UK and benefited from heavy spending on household and garden items in particular.

The company also said that Russo, who previously held senior positions at Kingfisher, Asda and Tesco, would succeed Simon Arora as chief executive this year.

Arora, who has taken the business from a small collection of stores in north-west England to a FTSE 100 company with £4.6bn of annual sales, is retiring this year, although his brother Bobby will remain with the business.