(Alliance News) - B&M European Value Retail SA on Thursday confirmed itself as a lockdown winner with a jump in revenue and profit, but warned that earnings from its flagship UK stores will decline as restrictions ease.
Shares were down 4.0% to 538.98 pence in London.
For the financial year ended March 27, revenue was up 26% to GBP4.80 billion from GBP3.81 billion the year before and pretax profit doubled to GBP525.4 million from GBP252.0 million.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased by 83% to GBP626.4 million from GBP342.3 million. In March, B&M had guided for adjusted Ebitda to be in the range of GBP590 million to GBP620 million.
The Luxembourg-based food and homewares retailer declared a total dividend of 17.3 pence, more than doubled from 8.1p paid out the year before. The ordinary dividend was slightly above expectations and was in addition to GBP450 million in special dividends paid in financial 2021.
B&M said it experienced an exceptional year as customers flocked to the discount retailer during stringent restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the UK, its stores were allowed to stay open as an essential retailer.
B&M stores offer an assortment of branded food, non-perishable grocery, and general merchandise products, all sold at low prices.
The company said the UK B&M business, which made up 85% of revenue and is one of its two brands in the country, experienced very strong sales in the last month of the financial year. The final week of financial 2021 was the strongest in its history which led to the Ebitda outperformance.
Like-for-like revenue growth picked up from 23.0% in the first half of the year to 24.5% in the second half.
But trading has been volatile since restrictions were eased, and it's likely to remain so for the whole of the current financial year as the company faces strong comparatives, B&M said.
The company expects like-for-like revenue in UK B&M to decline in financial 2022, as it focuses on delivering growth over a two-year period.
In France, where most stores were shut during restrictions, there has been a "pleasing recovery" since the most recent lockdown ended on May 19.
Chief Executive Officer Simon Arora said: "There are many uncertainties as society slowly emerges from lockdown and trading patterns are likely to be unpredictable for much of the year.
"Within our UK business, we will be up against the strong comparatives from last year but we remain confident that the B&M customer proposition, with its modern network of predominantly out-of-town stores and value-led variety offer, will prove highly relevant to the needs of shoppers."
By Ivan Edwards; ivanedwards@alliancenews.com
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