Profits at B&M fell 47% after a difficult year in which its CFO resigned.
Despite issuing a series of profit warnings last year and the exit of finance chief Mike Schmidt over a £7 million accounting error, the results published today caused a 15% spike in the FTSE 250 firm’s share price.
However its shares remain 41% down in the last 12 months.
For the 52 weeks to 28th March 2026, revenue was up 3.6% to £5.8 billion. However statutory profit before tax dropped 47.3% to £227 million (FY25: £431m), driven by lower trading margins and operating cost inflation in the UK.
The PBT figure included an impairment charge of £36m, versus £3m in FY25, due to store leases and fixed assets reflecting the lower profitability across the estate.
Adjusted EBITDA was £459m, down 26% from £620m.
B&M said it opened 64 new stores across the UK and France, up 33 net when closures were taken into account. Its Heron brand saw 11 openings but 12 closures.
“FY26 was a difficult year that saw profits fall due to a challenging market and execution issues,” said CEO Tjeerd Jegen. “We launched our Back to B&M Basics plan in October to restore like-for-like sales growth at B&M UK, which was flat overall versus FY25 while showing sequential improvement.
“The past six months has seen us sharpen our pricing, improve on-shelf availability in best-selling brands and revamp our in-store promotions. We cleared discontinued lines well in Q4 and are now embarking on SKU count reductions across all our FMCG categories.
“Cash conversion remained strong in FY26 and net debt has fallen, returning Group leverage back within our 1.0 to 1.5x target range, and I am pleased to report adjusted EBITDA at the midpoint of our current guidance.
“FY27 remains a year of investment as we work hard to deliver growth under Back to B&M Basics and balance new store growth with investing in our store formats under Phase 2 of our strategic plan.
“We are confident we can offset rising energy costs in the year ahead through cost mitigation, the benefits of which will flow through to our bottom line once we have returned B&M UK like-for-like sales to growth. In the medium term, we continue to see no reason why B&M UK cannot return to double-digit EBITDA margins.”