B&M has confirmed the number of new high street stores it plans to open this year and a few of the new locations have been revealed. Eleven new locations have been officially announced on the B&M website, and more are set to be announced over the coming few months.
New B&M locations are set to be opened in Kent, Cumbria, and Carlisle – all of which will be opening over April and May. The first new B&M site is set to open in Shepshed in Leicestershire on April 26. B&M opened 45 new stores last year and in a trading update, it confirmed that it planned to expand by the same amount over 2025.
B&M – which is aiming to have 1,200 stores in the UK – said in November last year it had successfully converted 44 of the 52 former Wilko locations it took on when the chain fell into administration in August 2023. Currently, B&M has around 772 stores across the UK.
The retailer said it was performing “in line with our expectations and is generating strong returns”. The openings come as B&M reported a fall in like-for-likes in the UK of 3.1% to £4.5billion in the year to 29 March.
In the final 12 weeks, they were down 2.4%. Across the wider group, the retailer posted a 3.7% increase in sales to £5.6billion during the year thanks to its new store openings and a positive performance in France, which helped to offset a weaker performance in the UK.
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B&M said its garden, toys, paint and stationery categories underpinned performance for its UK business. It also noted the board was making progress on finding a replacement for outgoing chief executive Alex Russo, who is retiring from the company at the end of this month, and expects to make an announcement in the coming weeks.
In its update to the stock market, B&M said: “The board is in the advanced stages of a recruitment process to appoint a new CEO with the support of a leading executive search firm, and will provide an update in due course.”
Russo said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at B&M since joining in 2020. The business has been successfully steered through the pandemic years and is now larger and stronger with group revenues increasing by almost 50% and cash distributions to shareholders in excess of £2bn during my tenure.
“It has been professionally rewarding to assemble and work with a high quality leadership team and to retire leaving growing businesses with great potential in both UK and France. I wish the board and the leadership team every success in the years ahead.”
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