LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - British discount chain B&M does not expect any material impact from disruption to shipments through the Suez Canal due to attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi militants in the Red Sea, its CEO said on Tuesday.
"I don't expect any material impact for us," Alex Russo told Reuters.
"The supply chain for us has sufficient in-built flexibilities so I don't expect any impact coming into our business," he said after FTSE 100 retailer updated on Christmas trading.
Global shipping firms are avoiding the Red Sea route and diverting shipments around Africa's southern Cape of Good Hope.
Last week, British clothing retailer Next said its sales growth will likely be moderated if the disruption continues.
However, B&M, which sells everything from furniture and electrical items to clothing, footwear and toys and is a high volume customer to the main shipping lines, is confident it will not face product availability issues.
"I am not going to face any delays that will affect my availability and our customer because my supply chain has in-built flexibility," Russo said.
"Whatever longer route trajectory we take we have enough buffers in our supply chain lead times to basically not impact us." (Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle and Ed Osmond)
B&M (BME)
Next (NXT)