The Scotsman

CHALLENGES

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British discount retailer B&M European Value reported a 25 per cent rise in full-year profit yesterday, saying its cheaper offer was winning over customers in a tough economic environmen­t.

There was also a bumper payout for its shareholde­rs, with the company recommendi­ng a 23 per cent rise in the final dividend to 4.8p per share, giving a 24 per cent rise in the full-year dividend to 7.2p a share.

The fast-growing company, which finished the year with 576 B&M stores, posted a pretax profit of £229.3 million for the 53 weeks to end-march on sales up 22.4 per cent at £2.98 billion. That compared with £2.43bn in the previous year.

The group said food and groceries, DIY and pet care performed well, but cold weather in March hit demand for its new 2018 spring and summer ranges, taking the shine off what would have been a very strong second half.

B&M’S UK stores delivered like-for-like sales growth of 4.7 per cent for the year. The UK estate also saw an increase in profitmarg­inof29basi­spoints

0 The discount retailer has added another 47 new UK stores in the year

SIMON ARORA, CEO to 10.2 per cent. The extra 53rd weekadded£53.5mand£3.2m to group revenues and profit before tax respective­ly.

B&M, whose chairman is former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, said its British stores have delivered a “pleasing” trading performanc­e in the early weeks of the new financial year.

Excluding the Easter week, it said its UK like-for-like revenue grew 3.1 per cent in the first eight weeks of the year. “Whilst there are five weeks still to go to the end of the period, we are confident of a solid outcome for the quarter,” the retailer said.

Analysts said the UK’S slowing economy was seeing cashsqueez­ed consumers head to discount retailers such as B&M and Primark, and the German supermarke­t discounter­s Lidl and Aldi.

B&M chief executive Simon Arora said: “The B&M model is highly relevant for the current difficult economic environmen­t, with its strong position in the value and convenienc­e areas of retailing where

“In a retail sector beset by structural challenges B&M’S unique, disruptive model stands out as a success story”

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