By Emily Hawkins
B&M has said it is optimistic that it would be able to retain the loyalty of shoppers who are switching to the discount retailer amid the economic downturn.
The British-Luxembourg business said it was “well positioned” to reap the rewards of customers who were trading down in both grocery and non-grocery, against the backdrop of a cost of living crunch.
It said it would “expect to retain many of these consumers into any economic recovery,” echoing the optimism of discount grocers Aldi and Lidl this week.
B&M bosses said they would focus on long-term customer loyalty and “would not sacrifice hard-won, long-term positioning for short term gains.
After seeing waves of more customers through the door in Covid lockdowns, when hospitality and other destinations were closed for months, the group has seen sales normalise this year.
Adjusted earnings in the UK slipped by 22 per cent to £200m, half-year results published on Thursday outlined.
Chief executive, Alex Russo, said “sales momentum is good”, despite the country being in the teeth of what is expected to be a protracted recession.
For the first six weeks of retail’s critical golden quarter, ahead of Christmas, like-for-like sales were up 2.5 per cent.
Core earnings stood at £232m for the six month period, depleted by 17.9 per cent, after raking in £2.31bn sales, an increase of 1.8 per cent.
B&M stuck to its previous earnings guidance of £550m-600m, which would be significantly ahead of its pre-pandemic performance of £342m.
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