B&M share price tumbles on slow Christmas sales growth
Discount chain B&M’s share price has fallen by more than eight per cent this morning after a trading update reported a challenging Christmas period.
The company said like-for-like sales for the 12 weeks leading up to 28 December had increased by 0.3 per cent.
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It said the slow growth had come “against a challenging broader retail market and our decision not to engage in any early discounting activity”.
B&M’s revenue for the third quarter was £1,190.9m, up from £1,092.5m for the same period in 2018.
Although revenue was up 8.8 per cent on the previous quarter.
“Against the backdrop of a difficult UK retail environment with reduced shopper footfall and political uncertainty, our core B&M UK business generated continued growth and delivered a record level of peak season sales,” said chief executive Simon Arora.
“Cumulatively, B&M UK has achieved 2.3 per cent sales growth during the financial year to date, albeit with a slower performance than anticipated during the run up to Christmas.”
Read more: Lidl sales grow 11 per cent over Christmas period
B&M also delivered 15 new stores, three of which had been relocated, and have six planned gross new store openings at our for the final quarter.
Shares were down 8.21 per cent in the wake of the update, trading at 364.60p.