BUT B&M IS BOOMING

BARGAIN retailer B&M has defied High Street gloom with its garden furniture and camping gear proving a hit with shoppers.

Sales at the chain, which sells everything from barbecues to dog food, jumped 21.3pc in the three months to June 30 compared with a year earlier. Same store sales in the UK climbed 1.6pc in the same period.

Yesterday Sainsbury’s chairman David Tyler accused bargain chains of ‘salami slicing’ away its sales. B&M chief executive Simon Arora said the record sales were ‘testament to the appeal of our highly-disruptive business model’.