FY25 Preliminary Results Announcement

 

Resilient Profit Delivery and Continued Growth Despite Headwinds

 

B&M European Value Retail S.A. ("the Group"), a leading European variety goods value retailer, today announces its Preliminary Results for the 52 week financial reporting period to 29 March 2025 ("FY25"). The comparative reporting period is for the 53 week financial reporting period to 30 March 2024 ("FY24").

 

Headline measures (on a comparable basis)	FY25 (52 weeks)	FY24 (52 weeks)	Change
Group revenue	£5,571m	£5,372m	3.7%
Group adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1	£620m	£616m	0.6%
Group adjusted operating profit1	£591m	£602m	(1.8)%
Adjusted diluted EPS	33.5p	35.9p	(6.7)%
Group post-tax free cash flow2	£311m	£382m*	(18.5)%
Ordinary dividends3	15.0p	14.7p*	2.0%
Net debt4	£781m	£737m*	5.9%
Statutory measures (on a full financial year basis)	FY25 (52 weeks)	FY24 (53 weeks)	Change
Total Group revenue	£5,571m	£5,484m	1.6%
Group operating profit	£566m	£608m	(7.0)%
Group profit before tax	£431m	£498m	(13.2)%
Statutory diluted EPS	31.8p	36.5p	(13.0)%
Group cash generated from operations	£784m	£862m	(9.1)%
*as reported last year on a 53-week basis
Key highlights (on a 52-week comparable basis)

 

·	Group revenues increased by 3.7% to £5.6bn (+4.0% constant currency5) primarily driven by the contribution from new stores
·	Group adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1 of £620m (FY24: £616m) is in the upper half of the guided range from February 2025, and is 0.6% higher than the previous year
·	Group adjusted operating profit1 of £591m (FY24: £602m) decreased 1.8%, due to higher depreciation from our asset base
·	Robust Group gross margin performance underpinned by an increase in B&M UK's trading margin6 which rose by 42 bps to 36.7% due to increased General Merchandise sales participation and clean sell-through during the year
·	Operating profit of £566m (FY24 53 weeks: £608m) decreased due to higher depreciation and adjusting items, with profit before tax of £431m (FY24 53 weeks: £498m) impacted by increased interest and finance costs
·	Adjusted diluted earnings per share1 of 33.5p (FY24: 35.9p) and statutory diluted earnings per share of 31.8p (FY24 53 weeks: 36.5p)
·	Post-tax free cash flow2 of £311m (FY24 53 weeks: £382m), principally with a year-on-year working capital outflow from increased stock holding leading to lower free cash generation
·	Net debt4 to adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1 leverage ratio4 of 1.26x (FY24: 1.17x). Net debt including leases4 to adjusted EBITDA (post-IFRS 16)1 2.56x (FY24: 2.40x)
·	Recommended final dividend3 of 9.7p per ordinary share, bringing the full year dividend to 15.0p per share (2024: 14.7p) in addition to the 15.0p special dividend paid in February 2025 (FY24: 20.0p)
·	Group adjusted return on capital employed (ROCE)7 of 30.4% demonstrates continued efficient use of capital. £2.1bn returned to shareholders over the last five years.
·	Opened 70 gross new stores across the Group (45 in B&M UK, 14 in Heron Foods and 11 in B&M France). Pipeline well-set for next year
·	New UK import centre set to be operational this summer and the distribution centre expansion project in France is progressing well
·	Redomicile process, which will simplify administrative processes and enable greater flexibility in returning capital to shareholders, including through share buybacks, is progressing to plan. Process now focused upon redomicile to Jersey and expected to complete within the calendar year, subject to the necessary regulatory and legal clearances
·	As announced on 15 May 2025, Tjeerd Jegen will join as CEO on 16 June 2025

 

Fascia performance8	Revenue growth %		Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1 margin %		Adjusted operating profit1 margin %
	FY25	FY24	FY25	FY24	FY25	FY24
B&M UK	3.8%	6.2%	12.2%	12.6%	11.8%	12.4%
B&M France	7.8%	16.7%	8.8%	9.1%	8.9%	9.5%
Heron Foods	(0.6)%	13.1%	5.5%	6.4%	3.0%	4.9%

 

Notes:

1. Adjusted values are considered to be appropriate to exclude unusual, non-trading and/or non-recurring impacts on performance which therefore provides the user of the accounts with additional metrics to compare periods of account. See Notes 2, 3 and 4 of the financial statements for further details.

2. Post-tax free cash flow is an Alternative Performance Measure. Please see Note 3 of the financial statements for more details and reconciliation to the consolidated statement of cash flows. Statutory Group cash generated from operations was £784m (FY24: £862m). This statutory definition excludes payments for leased assets including the leasehold property estate.

3. Dividends are stated as gross amounts before deduction of Luxembourg withholding tax which is currently 15%.

4. Leverage ratio (pre and post-IFRS 16) is calculated as net debt divided by adjusted EBITDA. See Note 28 of the financial statements for definition and net debt (pre and post-IFRS 16) reconciliation. This is a measure of the Group's ability to meet its payment obligations and is widely used by analysts and credit rating agencies.

5. Constant currency comparison involves restating the prior year Euro revenues using the same exchange rate as that used to translate the current year Euro revenues.

6. Trading gross margin is considered to be a meaningful measure of profitability as it refers to the measure of gross margin used by management to commercially run the business. It differs to the statutory definition for B&M UK, which increased 47 bps from 36.9% to 37.4%, due to technical accounting adjustments in relation to the allocation of gains and losses from derivative accounting, storage costs and commercial income.

7. Adjusted return on capital employed (ROCE), is defined as adjusted operating profit (£591m) divided by the closing carrying value of property, plant & equipment (£448m), right-of-use assets (£1,159m) and software (£5m) plus net working capital (£334m). This metric represents the profit generated as a proportion of the total assets that the business has utilised in the period. Management believes that this is a useful measure to assess performance.

8. References in this announcement to the B&M UK business include the B&M fascia stores in the UK except for the 'B&M Express' fascia stores. References in this announcement to the Heron Foods business include both the Heron Foods fascia and B&M Express fascia convenience stores in the UK.

 

  

Supplemental information

We report sales on a 13-week and 52-week retail calendar - which uses 364 days in a year. A 53^rd week was added to our reporting calendar in FY24. The additional week only affects comparability of performance in our statutory reporting.

 

To aid comparability for the user, throughout these results we have compared performance in FY25 against performance in FY24 on a 52-week basis by removing the 53^rd week (week ending 30 March 2024) from the prior period's statutory result.  

 

Results presentation

An in-person presentation for analysts in relation to these FY25 Preliminary Results will be held today (4 June 2025) at 09:30 am (UK) at Bank of America, 2 King Edward St, London EC1A 1HQ.  Attendance is by invitation only and attendees must be registered in advance. 

 

To register please contact Dave McCarthy via email at [email protected]

 

A simultaneous live audio webcast and presentation will be available via the B&M corporate website at  Reports & Presentations l B&M Stores (bandmretail.com)

 

Enquiries

B&M European Value Retail S.A.

For further information please contact: +44 (0) 151 728 5400 Ext. 6363

Mike Schmidt, Chief Financial Officer and Interim Chief Executive Officer

Dave McCarthy, Head of Investor Relations, [email protected]

 

Media

For media please contact:

Sam Cartwright, H-advisors, [email protected] +44 (0) 7827 254 561      

Jonathan Cook, H-advisors, [email protected] +44 (0) 7730 777 865

 

Disclaimer

This announcement contains statements which are or may be deemed to be 'forward-looking statements'. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on events or circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. All forward-looking statements in this announcement reflect the Company's present view with respect to future events as at the date of this announcement. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results in future periods may and often do differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Except where required by law or the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority, the Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to any forward-looking statements in this announcement that may occur due to any change in its expectations or to reflect any events or circumstances arising after the date of this announcement.

  

About B&M European Value Retail S.A.

B&M European Value Retail S.A. is a variety retailer with 777 stores in the UK operating under the "B&M" brand, 343 stores under the "Heron Foods" and "B&M Express" brands, and 135 stores in France also operating under the "B&M" brand as at 29 March 2025. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 index.

 

The B&M Group was founded in 1978 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in June 2014. For more information, please visit www.bandmretail.com

 

 

Business review

 

Overview

 

In FY25, the Group's sales performance, particularly within the B&M UK business, was below expectations amid challenging market headwinds. However, the Group's overall profit delivery remained resilient, particularly in comparison to its longer-term history.

 

Group revenues increased by 3.7% to £5.6bn (on a 52-week comparable basis), primarily driven by the contribution from new stores and positive like-for-like (LFL)¹ performance in France, which offset a negative 3.1% LFL¹ performance in the B&M UK business. Group adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)² saw a modest increase to £620m (FY24 52 weeks: £616m) which is 81.0% higher than FY20.

 

The Group's financial model is built on consistent, strong cash generation and disciplined capital investment that supports the continued store expansion and investment in infrastructure.  With an adjusted return on capital employed³ of over 30%, last year the Group returned £300m and over the last five years the Group has driven the return of £2.1bn to shareholders through ordinary and special dividends, while maintaining a conservative leverage ratio⁴ of 1.26x.

 

Continued progress was also made against strategic priorities, positioning the business well for the future, including by driving store standards and availability, maintaining the Group store opening program, and expanding distribution capabilities, all of which are fundamental to better serving our customers and positioning the Group to drive growing returns for shareholders in future.

 

Operational review and market environment

 

FY25 saw a challenging UK retail trading environment. While a number of external factors - including a very subdued garden season, heightened consumer caution, limited real wage growth (especially for our core lower-income consumer groups who also faced the end of direct government "Cost of Living" payments), and the timing of Easter - undeniably contributed significantly to B&M UK's 3.1% LFL¹ sales decline, the Group also recognises that its operational execution could have been better and this is being addressed in current trading plans.

 

Within B&M UK, performance in FMCG categories did not meet our internal expectations, showing negative LFL¹ performance in both sales value and units. While improvement in trading performance is required, the Everyday Low Price (EDLP) strategy remains central. Relative pricing advantages against traditional supermarkets were maintained with very limited inflation across categories sold, and on-shelf availability was good. In Q1 FY26 initiatives focusing on product ranging, in-store merchandising, and space allocation in key categories like cleaning, health & beauty, and food are being implemented to strengthen future LFL performance.

 

In contrast, performance in General Merchandise was more robust, with LFL volume and total volume gains achieved over the last 12 months which underpinned the Group's overall profit delivery. The business implemented a deflationary pricing strategy passing on improved sourcing terms to drive volume growth, particularly in key categories like homewares, toys, seasonal, and electricals. In the second and third financial quarter, while there was a positive customer response leading to increased volumes sold and good trading margins, the pricing approach depressed sales value growth, and this led to a LFL sales value decline in General Merchandise for the financial year.  In Q4, with some range adjustments to include higher selling price products, both B&M UK LFL volumes and values grew.  Q4's volume-led but balanced average selling price approach will continue into FY26.  

 

Elsewhere within the Group, the B&M France fascia delivered a solid performance, contributing positively to overall Group growth with a total revenue increase of 7.8% (+2.6% LFL¹), driven by positive customer transaction numbers and new stores opened during the year performing well and demonstrating the brand's potential across various formats. While investment in the distribution capabilities to enable growth impacted margins, B&M France remains a key growth driver. In the UK convenience sector, Heron Foods faced a more challenging year, with total revenues decreasing by 0.6% against tough prior year comparatives and a difficult market backdrop impacting its core customer base. Notwithstanding this, Heron Foods' revenues in FY25 are 32.8% higher than FY22, demonstrating the progress that has been made in recent years with customers and underpinning the financial returns being generated.

 

Strategic progress

 

The Group's long-term strategy remains centred upon profitable LFL¹ sales growth in B&M UK, expanding its UK store base to at least 1,200 B&M stores, and driving growth in its B&M France and Heron fascias.

 

In FY25, the Group continued its disciplined store expansion, opening 45 gross (36 net) new B&M UK stores. This contributed significantly to revenue growth and brought the total net new B&M UK stores over the last five years to 121, alongside 34 in France and 50 Heron Foods stores. The UK rollout program is progressing towards the long-term target of at least 1,200 B&M UK stores, with a further 45 gross openings planned in FY26.

 

Investment in distribution capacity also continued, with the new Ellesmere Port import centre in the UK expected to become operational in the summer to support volume growth and network optimisation. Furthermore, we successfully implemented a new warehouse management system in France - the same system as used by B&M UK - a necessary development to replace an old legacy system. The expansion of the French distribution centre is progressing, set to increase throughput capacity by nearly 40% to support store openings in France. Focus also remains on enhancing store standards and product availability.

 

Following a comprehensive executive search process, the Group has announced the appointment of Tjeerd Jegen as Chief Executive Officer with effect from 16 June 2025. Tjeerd brings in-depth international retail experience from the grocery, general merchandise and value sectors having worked in leadership roles at Ahold Delhaize, Metro, Tesco, Woolworths, HEMA and Takko Fashion over 25 years.

 

The Group's future performance will inevitably also depend upon the hard work and skills of the whole B&M team - everyone from the shop floor upwards. The Group continues to work to ensure good colleague engagement, and progress is reflected in reduced store colleague turnover for the third consecutive year. 

 

Summary

 

Despite operational and market challenges in FY25 the Group remains well-positioned for the future by continuing to offer customers great value on best-selling products. The business model, focused on a disciplined approach to limited-assortment value retailing and cost control, remains robust. The underlying market trend towards discount retail continues, and the Group's value proposition will continue to resonate with consumers navigating ongoing economic pressures. Initiatives are in place to address the underperformance in FMCG categories and drive average selling prices in General Merchandise.  Continued store expansion in the UK and France, supported by investments in distribution infrastructure, provides a clear path for growth.

 

The Group recognises that FY26 will bring retail sector-wide challenges of increased minimum wage costs, higher employee national insurance and other taxes, and inflation on input costs. Work continues to reduce the impact of these pressures, through driving productivity improvements and sales volume growth. The impact of these additional costs and mitigations are reflected in the current range and median of analyst consensus operating profit forecasts⁵ for FY26.

 

With a robust model, clear growth pathways, and targeted strategic initiatives, the Group is strongly positioned to capitalise on market opportunities and generate significant long-term value for shareholders through disciplined growth and continued cash generation.

Notes:

1.     One-year like-for-like revenues relate to the B&M UK estate only (excluding wholesale revenues) and are based on either 52 weeks vs. 52 weeks or 13 weeks vs. 13 weeks comparison periods. They include each store's revenue for that part of the current period that falls at least 14 months after it opened compared with its revenue for the corresponding part of FY24. 

2.    Adjusted values are considered to be appropriate to exclude unusual, non-trading and/or non-recurring impacts on performance which therefore provides the user of the accounts with additional metrics to compare periods of account. See Notes 2, 3 and 4 of the financial statements for further details.

3.    Adjusted return on capital employed (ROCE), is defined as adjusted operating profit (£591m) divided by the closing carrying value of property, plant & equipment (£448m), right-of-use assets (£1,159m) and software (£5m) plus net working capital (£334m). This metric represents the profit generated as a proportion of the total assets that the business has utilised in the period. Management believes that this is a useful measure to assess performance.

4.     Leverage ratio (pre and post-IFRS 16) is calculated as net debt divided by adjusted EBITDA. See Note 28 of the financial statements for definition and net debt (pre and post-IFRS 16) reconciliation. This is a measure of the Group's ability to meet its payment obligations and is widely used by analysts and credit rating agencies. The leverage ratio shown in the FY24 comparative is for the statutory 53-week reporting year.

5.    The Group notes that current analyst consensus for FY26, according to Bloomberg on 2 June 2025, is for Group adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) of £621m, with a range of £569m to £646m, and for Group adjusted operating profit of £585m, with a range of £524m to £628m.

Financial review

Group financial performance

 

The current accounting period represents the 52 weeks trading to 29 March 2025 ("FY25") and the comparative period represents the 53 weeks to 30 March 2024. To aid comparability, the headline results and associated commentary is presented on a 52-week comparable basis ("FY24").

 

£'m	FY25	FY24 52-week basis	FY24 53-week basis	YoY 52-week change
Revenue	5,571	5,372	5,484	3.7%
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1	620	616	629	0.6%
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1 margin	11.1%	11.5%	11.5%	(35) bps
Depreciation and amortisation (pre-IFRS 16)	(92)	(80)	(82)	14.1%
Operating impact of IFRS 16*	63	66	67	(3.5%)
Adjusted operating profit1	591	602	614	(1.8%)
Adjusting items	(24)	(7)	(7)	245.3%
Statutory profit before interest and tax	567	595	607	(4.7%)
Finance costs relating to right-of-use assets	(77)	(68)	(69)	13.3%
Other net finance costs	(59)	(39)	(40)	46.3%
Statutory profit before tax	431	488	498	(11.4%)
*includes depreciation on right-of-use assets of £183m (FY24 53-week: £177m) - FY25 total depreciation & amortisation was £273m (FY24 53-week: £258m)

 

Group revenues in FY25 increased by 3.7% year-on-year, (4.0% on a constant currency basis²), driven by revenue growth from new store performance and positive like-for-like ("LFL")³ sales in France offsetting negative LFL performance in B&M UK and Heron Foods.

 

As previously disclosed, the 53^rd week in FY24 included the Easter weekend. There was therefore no Easter in FY25 and this lowered our total and LFL sales performance.

 

Group adjusted operating costs on an underlying basis^1,4 increased by 7.2% to £1,463m (FY24: £1,365m). The number of net new stores across the Group increased by 4.6% or 55 net new stores year-on-year, with the remaining cost increases largely coming from UK minimum wage increases that have not been fully offset through productivity gains.

 

Group adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)¹ increased by 0.6% to £620m, representing a margin of 11.1%. This reflects volume growth due to new store openings, offset against the increased cost pressures aforementioned and coupled with a negative LFL performances in B&M UK and Heron Foods.

 

Group adjusted operating profit¹ decreased by 1.8% to £591m. We have continued to invest in our asset base particularly the store estate, and as such total depreciation and amortisation increased by 8.3%. Group adjusted return on capital employed (ROCE)⁵ of 30.4% demonstrates continued efficient use of capital.

 

Adjusting items were a net charge of £24m, compared with £7m in the prior year. The net charge primarily relates to the costs for settlement of the Group Trading Director and costs relating to infrastructure projects carried out in the year.

 

As a result, statutory profit before interest and tax decreased by 4.7% to £567m partly explained above and due to the increase in adjusting items this year. Statutory profit before tax reduced 11.4% to £431m due to increased borrowing and right-of-use asset finance costs.   

 

Fascia overview

B&M UK

 

£'m	FY25	FY24 52-week basis	FY24 53-week basis	YoY 52-week change
Revenue	4,483	4,320	4,410	3.8%
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1	545	545	556	0.1%
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1 margin	12.2%	12.6%	12.6%	(45) bps
Depreciation and amortisation (pre-IFRS 16)	(66)	(58)	(59)	15.3%
Operating impact of IFRS 16*	51	50	51	2.7%
Adjusted operating profit1	530	537	548	(1.3)%
Statutory profit before interest and tax	530	537	548	(1.3)%
*includes depreciation on right-of-use assets of £141m (FY23 53-week: £136m) - FY25 total depreciation & amortisation was £208m (FY24 53-week: £195m)

 

In the B&M UK fascia⁶ business, total revenues increased by 3.8% to £4,483m, with LFL³ revenues down 3.1% year-on-year. This was underpinned by total volume and value growth, from our store opening programme as we opened 45 gross (36 net) new stores, and comparatively stronger General Merchandise total volume performance.

 

During the first half of the year, LFL³ revenues were down 3.6% due to unseasonal weather at the start of the first quarter which, hampered the garden season and Easter calendar effects, resulting in a Q1 LFL of (5.1)%. LFL performance improved in the second quarter to (1.9)%. H2 LFL performance was (2.6)% overall, split between (2.8)% in Q3 and (1.8)% in Q4 on a 12-week basis, after removing the distorting effect from the Easter weekend falling in the final week of FY24.

 

B&M UK revenues also included £30m of wholesale (FY24: £29m). The majority of wholesale sales are to our associate Centz Retail Holdings Limited, a chain of 56 variety goods stores in the Republic of Ireland.

 

Our trading gross margin⁷ rose 42 bps year-on-year to 36.7% from 36.3%.  This increase reflected an increase in General Merchandise sales participation and clean sell-through across both FMCG and General Merchandise, with prices for customers maintained or improved across the General Merchandise range. Statutory gross margin increased 47 bps to 37.4% from 36.9%, benefitting from favourable foreign exchange hedge accounting in the current year.

 

Adjusted operating costs on an underlying basis^1,6 increased to 25.0% of revenues compared to 24.0%, in FY24; an 8.1% increase on a 52-week basis or 5.9% on a reported basis. This reflected the 10% increase in the national minimum wage rate and scale effects from the 3.1% decline in LFL³ performance.

 

Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)¹ remained flat at £545m, with a margin of 12.2% down 45 bps, due to the total volume growth, offset by an increased underlying operating cost base. Adjusted operating profit¹ was £530m with a margin of 11.8% (FY24: 12.4%) due to the above factors. Statutory profit before interest and tax for the year was £530m, down 1.3% due to the factors described above.

 

We are an everyday low-cost retailer that operates with a low fixed cost base and double-digit adjusted operating profit margins. This operating model allows us to drive operating leverage from volume growth from either new store openings or like-for-like trading and to offset inflationary impacts. We had previously guided to maintaining adjusted EBITDA (pre IFRS 16) within a 12-13% range, and this was achieved in FY25 despite the LFL declines. However, in FY26, our underlying fixed cost base will increase by circa £75m before mitigation as a result of minimum-wage linked cost inflation, National Insurance increases and additional packaging taxes (EPR) coming into effect from April 2025. While we will continue to work to mitigate these pressures through productivity improvements, the impact of these additional costs and mitigations are reflected in the current range and median of analyst consensus operating profit forecasts for the Group in FY26.

 

B&M France

 

£'m	FY25	FY24 52-week basis	FY24 53-week basis	YoY 52-week change
Revenue	542	503	514	7.8%
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1	48	46	47	3.9%
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)1 margin	8.8%	9.1%	9.1%	(34) bps
Depreciation and amortisation (pre-IFRS 16)	(12)	(10)	(10)	14.0%
Operating impact of IFRS 16*	12	12	12	3.4%
Adjusted operating profit	48	48	49	1.6%
Statutory profit before interest and tax	48	48	49	1.6%
*includes depreciation on right-of-use assets of £32m (FY24 53-week: £30m) - FY25 total depreciation & amortisation was £43m (FY24 53-week: £40m)

 

Total revenues increased by 7.8% to £542m with LFL³ sales up 2.6%. The business continues to benefit from positive total and LFL customer transaction numbers that have offset deflationary pricing particularly in General Merchandise categories.

 

The business continued its store expansion programme in a controlled manner with 11 gross new store openings. The new stores are performing well and continue to demonstrate the potential for the B&M brand to trade effectively in a wide range of geographies and formats. 

 

Adjusted operating expenses on an underlying basis^1,6 increased by £18m to £195m which reflects the volume growth and  the elevated transport and distribution costs that arose from the implementation of the new warehouse management system in the year.

 

Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)¹ increased 3.9% to £48m representing an adjusted EBITDA¹ margin of 8.8% (FY24: 9.1%). Adjusted operating profit¹ was £48m with a margin of 8.9% (FY24: 9.5%), reflecting the increased costs pressures discussed above.

 

Statutory profit before interest and tax for the year was £48m broadly flat year-on-year.

 

Heron Foods

 

£'m	FY25	FY24 52-week basis	FY24 53-week basis	YoY 52-week change
Revenue	546	549	560	(0.6%)
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)	30	35	36	(15.4%)
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) margin	5.5%	6.4%	6.4%	(96) bps
Depreciation and amortisation (pre-IFRS 16)	(14)	(12)	(13)	8.7%
Operating impact of IFRS 16*	(0)	4	4	(99.9%)
Adjusted operating profit	16	27	27	(39.1%)
Statutory profit before interest and tax	16	27	27	(39.1%)
*includes depreciation on right-of-use assets of £10m (FY24 53-week: £11m) - FY25 total depreciation & amortisation was £23m (FY24 53-week: £23m)

Total revenues decreased 0.6% to £546m in what has been a challenging year. In each of the two preceding financial periods respectively, Heron Foods achieved total revenue growth in the mid to high teens and therefore this year's performance must be viewed against exceptionally high comparatives, with revenues 32.8% higher than in FY22. The LFL³ declines were moderated in party by the 14 gross (8 net) new store openings in the year, although the majority of these openings occurred in the second half of the year.

 

Gross margin remained broadly flat, reflecting a stable product mix. 

 

Adjusted operating expenses on an underlying basis^1,6 as a % of revenues increased to 26.3% from 25.4% due to inflationary pressures on store wages from the rise in the national minimum wage.

 

Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)¹ decreased by 15.4% to £30m, with a margin 5.5%, a result of the decline in revenues and reflects the 10% increase in the national minimum wage rate. Adjusted operating profit¹ was £16m.

 

Statutory profit before interest and tax for the year was £16m, a decline of 39.1% from the prior year which reflects the scale effects from the decline in revenue and due to the factors mentioned above.

Adjusting items

Adjusting items are excluded from our adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)¹ and adjusted operating profit¹ performance by virtue of their size and nature to provide a helpful perspective of the year-on-year performance of the Group. Total adjusting items in statutory profit before interest and tax result in a charge of £24m.

 

£'m	2025	2024 (52-week)
Profit before interest and tax	567	595
Group Trading Director settlement	12	-
Significant property transactions	5	9
Non-underlying impact of foreign exchange	3	(2)
Significant infrastructure projects	4	-
Adjusted operating profit1	591	602

In the current year, there was a £12m charge due to the earlier settlement of arrangements with the Group Trading Director; no further costs will be incurred in FY26 under these arrangements though the Group Trading Director will continue to be available as a consultant in the first half of the financial year as previously disclosed. The cost of this agreement are considered adjusting as they are not representative of normal employment costs for the Group's executive management team. The underlying results for the financial year included the salary and AIP costs for both Trading Directors employed throughout the year.

Significant property transactions relate to the cost of acquiring options from administrators and incremental pre-opening costs during the period of landlord lease negotiations until fit out commencement. These costs were for the remaining ex-Wilko stores (£3m) and for the new ex-Homebase stores acquired this year (£2m). Normal costs of pre-opening have been charged to the underlying profit result.

Significant infrastructure projects includes £1m of pre-operational costs relating to the Ellesmere Port import centre, with a further £3m in relation to disruption costs incurred from building and implementing the technical infrastructure to enable the French distribution centre expansion project to proceed.

We also incurred £1m in costs in FY25 associated with the planned redomicile of the Group from Luxembourg to Jersey or Ireland.  Given limited size, in FY25 these have not been treated as adjusting items, however FY26 costs for redomicile are expected to be larger and will therefore be treated as adjusting items.

Further detail on adjusting items can be found in note 3, starting on page 117 of the financial statements.

Group net finance costs

 

Adjusted net finance charges¹ for the year, excluding IFRS 16, were £59m, an increase of £20m year-on-year due to annualising higher interest charges on the £250m November 2023 bond at 8.125% and issuing a new £250m bond with an interest rate of 6.500% in November 2024. We expect finance costs in FY26 to increase due to annualising a full year's interest charge on the £250m November 2024 bond which is £94m greater in size and attracts a higher coupon compared to the £156m 3.625% remaining stub of the £400m bond replaced.

 

The interest charge relating to lease liabilities under IFRS 16 was £77m (FY24: £68m) due to the additional leases associated with the store opening programme and higher discount rates in recent years.

Group tax

 

The tax charge in FY25 was £112m reflecting lower profits year-on-year and is an effective rate of 26%, this is also the effective rate we expect for FY26.

 

As a Group, we are committed to paying the right tax in the territories in which we operate. The B&M UK business paid taxes totalling £633m in FY25, including £264m relating to those taxes borne directly by the company such as corporation tax, customs duties, business rates, employer's national insurance contributions and stamp duty and land taxes. The balance of £369m are taxes we collect from customers and employees on behalf of the UK Exchequer, which includes value added tax, pay as you earn and employee national insurance contributions.

 

Profit after tax and earnings per share

 

Statutory profit after tax was £319m which was £48m lower year-on-year. Statutory diluted earnings per share was 31.8p (FY24: 36.5p), 13.0% lower year-on-year due to increased adjusting items and interest charges and the additional week in the prior period.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share¹ was 33.5p (FY24: 35.9p), 6.7% lower on a 52-week comparable basis due to increased depreciation and a higher interest rate environment. Adjusted profit after tax (pre-IFRS 16)¹, which is also reported to allow investors to better understand the operating performance of the business (see note 3 of the financial statements), was £347m (FY24: £362m), and the adjusted (pre-IFRS 16) fully diluted earnings per share¹ was 34.5p (FY24: 36.0p).

Capital expenditure

 

Group net capital expenditure⁸ totalled £111m this year (FY24: £124m). Investment included £53m spent on 70 gross new stores across the Group's fascias (FY24: £59m on 78 stores) and a net £25m on infrastructure projects to support the continued growth of the business (FY24: £31m). There was also investment of £33m on maintenance works to ensure that our existing store estate and distribution centres are appropriately invested (FY24: £34m).

Post-tax free cash flow⁹ and net debt¹⁰

 

Post-tax free cash flow⁹ of £311m (FY24: £382m), was driven by lower profit before tax. Our total working capital outflow was £64m moderately higher than previously expected, reflecting inventory growth from the two-week longer container shipping times, ensuring good on-shelf availability and increased stock holding from the Group's additional stores. Looking ahead, we expect our stock levels to grow at the rate of the sales growth due to the store rollout programme.

 

Net debt (pre-IFRS 16)¹⁰, increased to £781m (FY24: £737m) due to the additional £250m bond issued in the year. The net debt (pre-IFRS 16)¹⁰ to adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)¹ leverage ratio was 1.26x (FY24: 1.17x). Net debt (including IFRS 16 lease liabilities)¹⁰ was £2,210m (FY24: £2,094m) meaning our net debt to adjusted EBITDA (post-IFRS 16)¹ ratio was 2.56x, an increase on the previous year (FY24: 2.40x).

Dividends

 

The Group continues to be highly cash generative despite higher working capital and a decline in LFL performance. During the year, the Company declared and paid an interim ordinary dividend of 5.3p¹¹ per share in addition to a special dividend of 15.0p¹¹ per share. Subject to approval by shareholders at the AGM on 22 July 2025, a final ordinary dividend of 9.7p¹¹ per share will be paid on 1 August 2025 to shareholders on the register of the Company at the close of business on 27 June 2025. The ex-dividend date will be 26 June 2025.

 

The Board has in place an agreed a long-term capital allocation policy that provides a framework to help investors understand how the Group will evaluate opportunities to invest and support the growth of the business relative to incremental return of capital to shareholders.

 

The dividend policy targets an ordinary dividend pay-out ratio of between 40% to 50% of net income on a normalised tax basis. The Group generally aims to pay the interim and final dividends for each financial year in proportions of approximately one-third and two-thirds of the total annual ordinary dividend respectively.

 

 

Mike Schmidt

Chief Financial Officer and Interim Chief Executive Officer

3 June 2025

 

 

Notes:

1.    Adjusted values are considered to be appropriate to exclude unusual, non-trading and/or non-recurring impacts on performance which therefore provides the user of the accounts with additional metrics to compare periods of account. See notes 2, 3 and 4 of the financial statements for further details.

2.     Constant currency comparison involves restating the prior year Euro revenues using the same exchange rate as that used to translate the current year Euro revenues.

3.     One-year like-for-like revenues relate to the B&M UK estate only (excluding wholesale revenues) and are based on either 52 weeks vs. 52 weeks or 13 weeks vs. 13 weeks comparison periods. They include each store's revenue for that part of the current period that falls at least 14 months after it opened compared with its revenue for the corresponding part of FY24.

4.   Adjusted operating expenses on an underlying basis excludes foreign exchange, one-off income, depreciation and amortisation. This adjusted measure is considered a more meaningful metric to the users of the accounts as this is the cost base used by management to commercially monitor performance. Group non-underlying items include B&M UK's foreign exchange losses in relation to derivative adjustments of £9m (FY24: £12m charge). Group adjusted operating costs, excluding depreciation and amortisation, as a % of revenues increased to 26.4% from 25.6%.

5.    Group adjusted return on capital employed (ROCE), is defined as adjusted operating profit (£591m) divided by the closing carrying value of property, plant & equipment (£448m), right-of-use assets (£1,159m) and software (£5m) plus net working capital (£334m). This metric represents the profit generated as a proportion of the total assets that the business has utilised in the period. Management believes that this is a useful measure to assess performance.

6.    References in this announcement to the B&M UK business include the B&M fascia stores in the UK except for the 'B&M Express' fascia stores. References in this announcement to the Heron Foods business include both the Heron Foods fascia and B&M Express fascia convenience stores in the UK.

7.   Trading gross margin is considered to be a meaningful measure of profitability as it refers to the measure of gross margin used by management to commercially run the business. It differs to the statutory definition for B&M UK, which increased 47 bps from 36.9% to 37.4%, due to technical accounting adjustments in relation to the allocation of gains and losses from derivative accounting, storage costs and commercial income.

8.    Net capital expenditure includes the purchase of property, plant and equipment, intangible assets and proceeds from the sale of any of those items. These exclude IFRS 16 lease liabilities. Capex shown in the FY24 comparatives is for the statutory 53-week reporting year.

9.   Post-tax free cash flow is an Alternative Performance Measure. Please see note 3 of the financial statements for more details and reconciliation to the consolidated statement of cash flows. Statutory Group cash generated from operations was £784m (FY24 53-week: £862m). This statutory definition excludes payments for leased assets including the leasehold property estate. Post-tax free cash flow shown in the FY24 comparatives is for the statutory 53-week reporting year.

10.   Leverage ratio (pre and post-IFRS 16) is calculated as net debt divided by adjusted EBITDA. See note 28 of the financial statements for definition and net debt (pre and post-IFRS 16) reconciliation. This is a measure of the Group's ability to meet its payment obligations and is widely used by analysts and credit rating agencies. The leverage ratio shown in the FY24 comparative is for the statutory 53-week reporting year.

11.   Dividends are stated as gross amounts before deduction of Luxembourg withholding tax which is currently 15%.

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

 

Period ended		52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	Note	£'m	£'m
Revenue	2	5,571	5,484
Cost of sales		(3,479)	(3,449)
Gross profit		2,092	2,035
Administrative expenses		(1,526)	(1,427)
Operating profit	5	566	608
Share of profits/(losses) in associates	12	1	(1)
Profit on ordinary activities before net finance costs and tax		567	607
Finance costs on lease liabilities	6	(77)	(69)
Other finance costs	6	(66)	(50)
Finance income	6	7	10
Profit on ordinary activities before tax		431	498
Income tax expense	10	(112)	(131)
Profit for the period	2	319	367
Other comprehensive income for the period
Items which may be reclassified to profit and loss:
Exchange differences on retranslation of subsidiary and associate investments		(2)	(3)
Fair value movement as recorded in the hedging reserve		(10)	(22)
Tax effect of other comprehensive income	10	(1)	1
Total other comprehensive income		(13)	(24)
Total comprehensive income for the period		306	343
Earnings per share
Basic earnings per share attributable to ordinary equity holders (pence)	11	31.8	36.6
Diluted earnings per share attributable to ordinary equity holders (pence)	11	31.8	36.5

 

All profit and other comprehensive income is attributable to the owners of the parent.

 

The accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

 

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

 

 

As at		Note	29 March  2025	30 March  2024
			£'m	£'m
Non-current assets
Goodwill		13	920	921
Intangible assets		13	120	121
Property, plant and equipment		14	448	421
Right-of-use assets		15	1,159	1,101
Investments in associates		12	6	5
Other receivables		17	6	5
Other financial assets		20	-	1
Deferred tax asset		10	5	4
			2,664	2,579
Current assets
Cash at bank and in hand		18	217	182
Inventories		16	883	776
Trade and other receivables		17	79	76
Income tax receivable			11	8
Other financial assets		20	153	4
			1,343	1,046
Total assets			4,007	3,625
Equity
Share capital		23	(100)	(100)
Share premium			(2,484)	(2,481)
Retained earnings			(143)	(125)
Hedging reserve			11	10
Legal reserve			(10)	(10)
Merger reserve			1,979	1,979
Foreign exchange reserve			(5)	(7)
			(752)	(734)
Non-current liabilities
Interest-bearing loans and borrowings		21	(977)	(881)
Lease liabilities		15	(1,242)	(1,187)
Deferred tax liabilities		10	(35)	(25)
Other financial liabilities		20	(0)	(0)
Provisions		22	(4)	(4)
			(2,258)	(2,097)
Current liabilities
Interest-bearing loans and borrowings		21	(160)	(29)
Trade and other payables		19	(618)	(572)
Lease liabilities		15	(188)	(170)
Other financial liabilities		20	(13)	(10)
Income tax payable			(6)	(7)
Provisions		22	(12)	(6)
			(997)	(794)
Total liabilities			(3,255)	(2,891)
Total equity and liabilities			(4,007)	(3,625)

The accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these consolidated financial statements. This consolidated statement of financial position was approved by the Board of Directors and authorised for issue on 3 June 2025 and signed on their behalf by:

 

  

Mike Schmidt, Chief Financial Officer.

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Shareholders' Equity

 

	Share capital	Share premium	Retained earnings	Hedging reserve	Legal reserve	Merger reserve	Foreign exchange reserve	Total equity
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Balance at 25 March 2023	100	2,478	104	(3)	10	(1,979)	10	720
Ordinary dividends declared	-	-	(147)	-	-	-	-	(147)
Special dividends declared	-	-	(201)	-	-	-	-	(201)
Effect of share options	0	3	1	-	-	-	-	4
Total transactions with owners	0	3	(347)	-	-	-	-	(344)
Profit for the period	-	-	367	-	-	-	-	367
Other comprehensive income	-	-	1	(22)	-	-	(3)	(24)
Total comprehensive income for the period	-	-	368	(22)	-	-	(3)	343
Hedging gains & losses reclassified as inventory	-	-	-	15	-	-	-	15
Hedging gains & losses reclassified as finance costs	-	-	-	0	-	-	-	0
Balance at 30 March 2024	100	2,481	125	(10)	10	(1,979)	7	734
Ordinary dividends declared	-	-	(149)	-	-	-	-	(149)
Special dividends declared	-	-	(151)	-	-	-	-	(151)
Effect of share options	0	3	0	-	-	-	-	3
Total transactions with owners	0	3	(300)	-	-	-	-	(297)
Profit for the period	-	-	319	-	-	-	-	319
Other comprehensive income	-	-	(1)	(10)	-	-	(2)	(13)
Total comprehensive income for the period	-	-	318	(10)	-	-	(2)	306
Hedging gains & losses reclassified as inventory	-	-	-	8	-	-	-	8
Hedging gains & losses reclassified as finance costs	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1
Balance at 29 March 2025	100	2,484	143	(11)	10	(1,979)	5	752

 

 The accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

Period ended		52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	Note	£'m	£'m
Cash flows from operating activities
Cash generated from operations	24	784	862
Income tax paid		(109)	(116)
Net cash flows from operating activities		675	746
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchase of property, plant and equipment	14	(131)	(123)
Purchase of intangible assets	13	(2)	(3)
Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment		22	2
Deposits into short-term money market investments	20	(150)	-
Finance income received	6	7	5
Dividend income from associates	12	-	1
Net cash flows from investing activities		(254)	(118)
Cash flows from financing activities
Net (repayment)/receipt of Group revolving credit facilities	21	(25)	25
Repayment of old bank loan facilities	21	-	(300)
Receipt of new bank loan facilities	21	-	225
Repayment of corporate bonds	21	-	(239)
Receipt due to newly issued corporate bonds	21	250	250
Receipt of loan facilities held in France	21	9	3
Repayment of loan facilities held in France	21	(5)	-
Repayment of the principal in relation to lease liabilities	15	(176)	(171)
Payment of interest in relation to right-of-use assets	15	(77)	(69)
Fees on refinancing	21	(4)	(15)
Other finance costs paid	6	(56)	(41)
Dividends paid to owners of the parent	30	(300)	(348)
Net cash flows from financing activities		(384)	(680)
Effects of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents		(2)	(3)
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents		35	(55)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the period		182	237
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period		217	182
Cash and cash equivalents comprise:
Cash at bank and in hand	18	217	182
		217	182

 

The accompanying accounting policies and notes form an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

 

Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements

1          General information and basis of preparation

 

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with EU IFRS.

 

The Group's trade is general retail, with continuing trading taking place in the UK and France. The Group has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since June 2014.

 

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention as modified by the revaluation of financial assets and financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss. The measurement basis and principal accounting policies of the Group are set out below and have been applied consistently throughout the consolidated financial statements.

 

The consolidated financial statements are presented in pounds sterling and all values are rounded to the nearest million (£'m), except when otherwise indicated.

 

The consolidated financial statements cover the 52-week period from 31 March 2024 to 29 March 2025 which is a different period to the parent company standalone accounts (from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025). This exception is permitted under article 1712-12 of the Luxembourg company law of 10 August 1915, as amended, because the Directors believe that;

 

·    the consolidated financial statements are more informative when they cover the same period as used by the main operating entity, B&M Retail Ltd; and

·    it would be unduly onerous to rephase the year end in that subsidiary to match that of the parent company.

 

The year end for B&M Retail Ltd, in any year, will not be more than six days prior to the parent company year end. The next accounting period for the Group will be a 52-week period, from 30 March 2025 to 28 March 2026.

 

B&M European Value Retail S.A. (the "Company") is at the head of the Group and there is no consolidation that takes place above the level of this company.

 

The principal accounting policies of the Group are set out below.

 

Basis of consolidation

 

The Group financial statements consolidate the financial statements of the Company and its subsidiary undertakings, together with the Group's share of the net assets and results of associated undertakings, for the period from 31 March 2024 to 29 March 2025. Acquisitions of subsidiaries are dealt with by the acquisition method of accounting.  The results of companies acquired are included in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income from the acquisition date.

 

Control is achieved when the Group is exposed, or has rights, to variable returns from its involvement with the investee and has the ability to affect those returns through its power over the investee.

 

Specifically, the Group controls an investee if and only if the Group has:

 

·    power over the investee (i.e. existing rights that give it the current ability to direct the relevant activities of the investee);

·    exposure, or rights, to variable returns from its involvement with the investee; and

·    the ability to use its power over the investee to affect its returns.

When the Group has less than a majority of the voting or similar rights of an investee, the Group considers all relevant facts and circumstances in assessing whether it has power over an investee, including:

 

·    the contractual arrangements with the other vote holders of the investee;

·    rights arising from other contractual arrangements; and

·    the Group's voting rights and potential voting rights.

The Group re-assesses whether or not it controls an investee if facts and circumstances indicate that there are changes to one or more of the three elements of control. Consolidation of a subsidiary begins when the Group obtains control over the subsidiary and ceases when the Group loses control of the subsidiary. Assets, liabilities, income and expenses of a subsidiary acquired or disposed of during the year are included in the statement of comprehensive income from the date the Group gains control until the date the Group ceases to control the subsidiary, excluding the situations as outlined in the basis of preparation.

 

Going concern

 

As a value retailer, the Group is well placed to withstand volatility within the economic environment. The Group's forecasts and projections, taking into account reasonably possible changes in trading performance, show that the Group will trade within its current banking facilities.

 

In adopting the going concern basis for preparing the financial statements, the Directors have considered the business activities including the Group's principal risks and uncertainties. The Board also considered the Group's current cash position, the repayment profile of its obligations, its financial covenants and the resilience of its 12-month cash flow forecasts to a series of severe but plausible downside scenarios. Having considered these factors the Board is satisfied the Group has adequate resources to continue its successful growth. The scenarios considered as part of the going concern assessment are consistent with those used in the longer-term viability statement in the 'Principal risks and uncertainties' section of this Annual Report.

There have been no significant post balance sheet changes to liquidity.

 

On 19 November 2024, the Group issued £250m of high yield bond notes, maturing in November 2031 with an interest rate of 6.5%. £150m of cash received from these high yield bond notes was placed on money market deposit and has been ring-fenced for the purpose of repaying the remaining £156m of high yield bond notes (2020) in July 2025. 

 

Consequently, the Directors are confident that the Group and Company will have sufficient funds to continue to meet its liabilities as they fall due for at least 12 months from the date of approval of the financial statements and therefore have prepared the financial statements on a going concern basis.

 

Revenue

 

Under IFRS 15 Revenue is recognised when all the following criteria are met:

 

·    the parties to the contract have approved the contract;

·    the Group can identify each parties rights regarding the goods to be transferred;

·    the Group can identify the payment terms;

·    the contract has commercial substance; and

·    it is probable that the Group will collect the consideration we are entitled to in respect to the goods to be transferred.

 

In the vast majority of cases the Group's sales are made through stores and the control of goods is immediately transferred at the same time as the consideration is received via our tills. Therefore, revenue is recognised at this point.

 

The Group sells a small quantity of gift vouchers for use in the future and, as such, a small amount of deferred revenue is recognised. At the period end, the value held on the balance sheet was <£1m (2024: <£1m).

 

The Group operates a small wholesale function which recognises revenue when an invoice is raised. The revenue is considered collectable as the Group's wholesale customers are usually related parties to the Group (such as our associates) or are subject to credit checks before trade takes place. See note 2 for the split of wholesale sales to store sales.

 

Revenue is the total amount receivable by the Group for goods supplied, in the ordinary course of business, excluding VAT and trade discounts, and after deducting returns and relevant vouchers and offers.

 

Administrative expenses

 

Administrative expenses include all running costs of the business, except those relating to inventory (which are expensed through cost of sales), tax, interest and other comprehensive income. Transport and warehouse costs are included in this caption.

 

Elements which are unusual and significant may be separated as a line item.

 

Goodwill

 

Goodwill is initially measured at cost, being the excess of the fair value of consideration transferred over the fair value of the net identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed at the date of acquisition.

 

After initial recognition, goodwill is measured at cost less any accumulated impairment losses. For the purpose of impairment testing, goodwill acquired in a business combination is, from the acquisition date, allocated to the relevant cash-generating units (CGUs) that are expected to benefit from the combination.

 

The CGUs are individual stores and the groups of CGUs are the store portfolios in each operational segment.

 

Goodwill is tested for impairment at least once per year and specifically at any time where there is any indication that it may be impaired. Internally generated goodwill is not recognised as an asset.

 

Segment reporting

 

Operating segments are reported in a manner consistent with internal reporting provided to the chief operating decision maker. The chief operating decision maker has been identified as the Executive Directors of the Group. The Executive Directors are responsible for assessing the performance of the business for the purpose of making decisions about resources to be allocated.

 

Alternative performance measures

 

The Group reports a selection of alternative performance measures (APMs) as detailed below and in note 3, as the Directors believe that these measures provide additional information that is useful to the users of our accounts.

 

The APMs we report in these accounts are:

·    Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA)

·    Adjusted EBITDA

·    Adjusted operating profit

·    Adjusted profit

·    Adjusted earnings per share (EPS)

·    Post-tax free cash flow

To aide comparability with the figures presented in previous periods, and as they are the measures used in respect of internal reporting, pre-IFRS 16 versions of these APMs have also been calculated, where appropriate.

 

Interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation are as defined statutorily whilst the items we adjust for are those we consider not to be reflective of the underlying performance of the business as detailed in note 3. These adjustments include the non-underlying impact of foreign exchange (which chiefly comprises the fair value and foreign exchange impact of derivatives that have not been designated as part of a hedge accounting relationship and which are yet to mature), and costs incurred in relation to significant projects, where such costs are considered to have had a meaningful impact in the presented period, which are non-recurring and do not relate to underlying trading.

 

Underlying performance has been determined so as to align with how the Group financial performance is monitored on an ongoing basis by management. In particular, this reflects certain adjustments being made to consider an adjusted operating profit measure of performance.

 

Adjusted finance costs reflect the ongoing charges associated with our debt structure and exclude one-off effects of refinancing.

 

The Directors believe that our adjusted APMs provide users of the account with measures of performance which are appropriate to the retail industry and presented by peers and competitors. Adjusted values are considered to be appropriate to exclude unusual, non-trading and/or non-recurring impacts on performance which therefore provides the user of the accounts with an additional metric to compare periods of account.

 

The APMs used are not measures of performance or liquidity under IFRS and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of profit, or as an indicator of the Group's operating performance or cash flows from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS.

 

Brands

 

Brands acquired by the business are amortised if the corresponding agreement is specifically time limited, or if the fair valuation exercise (carried out for brands acquired via business combinations) identifies a fair lifespan for the brand. This amortisation is charged to administrative expenses.

 

Otherwise, brands are considered to have an indefinite life on the basis that they form part of the CGUs within the Group which will continue in operation indefinitely, with no foreseeable limit to the period over which they are expected to generate net cash inflows.

 

Where brands are considered to have an indefinite life they are reviewed at least annually for impairment or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that their carrying amount may not be recoverable. 

 

Where the carrying value of an asset exceeds its recoverable amount (i.e. the higher of value-in-use and fair value less costs to sell), the asset is impaired accordingly with the impairment charged to administration expenses.

 

Intangible assets

 

Intangible assets acquired separately, including computer software, are measured on initial recognition at cost comprising the purchase price and any directly attributable costs of preparing the asset for use.

  

Following initial recognition, assets are carried at cost less accumulated amortisation and accumulated impairment losses. Amortisation begins when an asset is available for use and is calculated on a straight-line basis to allocate the cost of the asset over its estimated useful life as follows:

 

Computer software acquired                 -                  3 or 4 years

 

Amortisation method, useful lives and residual values are reviewed at each reporting date and adjusted if appropriate.

 

Property, plant and equipment

 

Property, plant and equipment is carried at cost less accumulated depreciation and accumulated impairment losses.

 

Cost comprises purchase price and directly attributable costs. Unless significant or incurred as part of a refit programme, subsequent expenditure will usually be treated as repairs or maintenance and expensed to the statement of comprehensive income.

 

Subsequent costs are included in the asset's carrying amount or recognised as a separate asset, as appropriate, only when it is probable that future economic benefits associated with the item will flow to the Group and the cost of the item can be measured reliably. The carrying amount of the replaced part is derecognised.

 

Depreciation

 

Freehold land is not depreciated. For all other property, plant and equipment, depreciation is calculated on a straight-line basis to allocate cost, less residual value of the assets, over their estimated useful lives as follows:

 

Leasehold buildings                      -           Life of lease (max 50 years)

Freehold buildings                        -           2% - 4% straight line     
Plant, fixtures and equipment       -           10% - 33% straight line

Motor vehicles                              -           12.5% - 33% straight line           

 

Residual values and useful lives are reviewed annually and adjusted prospectively, if appropriate.

 

An item of property, plant and equipment is derecognised upon disposal or when no future economic benefits are expected from its use or disposal. Any gain or loss arising on derecognition of the asset (calculated as the difference between the net disposal proceeds and the carrying amount of the asset) is included in the statement of comprehensive income when the asset is derecognised.

 

Leases

 

The Group applies the leasing standard, IFRS 16, to all contracts identified as leases at their inception, unless they are considered a short-term lease (with a term less than a year) or where the asset is of a low underlying value. Assets which may fall into these categorisations include printers, vending machines and security cameras, and the lease expense is within administrative expenses.

 

The Group has lease contracts in relation to property, equipment, fixtures & fittings and vehicles. A contract is classified as a lease if it conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time in exchange for consideration.

 

When a lease contract is recognised, the business assesses the term for which we are reasonably certain to hold that lease, and the minimum lease payments over that term are discounted to give the initial lease liability. The initial right-of-use asset is then recognised at the same value, adjusted for incentives or payments made on the day that the lease was acquired. Any variable lease costs are expensed to administrative costs when incurred.

 

The date that the lease is brought into the accounts is the date from which the lease has been effectively agreed by both parties as evidenced by the Group's ability to use that property.

 

The right-of-use asset is subsequently depreciated on a straight-line basis over the term of that lease, or useful life (whichever is shorter) with the charge being made to administrative costs. The lease liability attracts interest which is charged to finance costs, and is measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

 

Right-of-use assets may be impaired if, for instance, a lease becomes onerous. Impairment costs are charged to administrative costs.

 

Lease modifications are recorded where there is a change in the expected cashflows associated with a lease, such as through a rent review. When a lease modification occurs the lease liability is recalculated and an equivalent adjustment is made to the right-of-use asset, unless that asset would be reduced below zero, in which case the excess is expensed in administrative costs. The recalculation is carried out with an unchanged discount unless the change has affected management's assessment of the term of the lease.

 

If there is a significant event, such as the lease reaching its expiry date, the likely exercise of a previously unrecognised break clause, or the signing of an extension lease, the lease term is re-assessed by management as to how long we can reasonably stay in that property, and a new lease agreement or modification (if the change is made before the expiry date) is recognised for the re-assessed term, with a recalculated discount rate.

 

Lease modifications are also recorded where there is a change in the expected cashflows associated with the lease, such as through a rent review. Unless the change affects the term, the discount rate is not recalculated. A lease modification results in a recalculation of the lease liability with a corresponding adjustment made to the right-of-use asset.

 

The discount rate used is individual to each lease. Where a lease contract includes an implicit interest rate, that rate is used. In the majority of leases this is not the case and the discount rate is taken to be the incremental borrowing rate as related to that specific asset. This is a calculation based upon the external market rate of borrowing for the Group, as well as several factors specific to the asset to be discounted.

 

The Group separates lease payments between lease and non-lease components (such as service charges on property) at the point at which the lease is recognised. Non-lease components are charged through administrative expenses.

 

Sale and leaseback transactions

 

The Group recognises a sale and leaseback transaction when the Group sells an asset that has been previously recognised in property, plant and equipment, and subsequently leases it back as part of the same or a linked transaction.

 

Management use the provisions of IFRS 15 to assess if a sale has taken place, and the provisions of IFRS 16 to recognise the resulting lease, with the liability and discount rate calculated in line with our lease policy and the asset subject to an adjustment based upon the net book value of the disposed asset, the opening lease liability, the consideration received and the fair value of the asset on the date it was sold.

 

Resulting gains or losses are recognised in administrative expenses.

Investments in associates

 

Associates are those entities over which the Group has significant influence, but which are neither subsidiaries nor interests in joint ventures. Investments in associates are recognised initially at cost and subsequently accounted for using the equity method. However, any goodwill or fair value adjustment attributable to the Group's share of associates is included in the amount recognised as investment in associates.

 

All subsequent changes to the share of interest in the equity of the associate are recognised in the Group's carrying amount of the investment, including a reduction in the carrying amount equal to any dividend received. Changes resulting from the profit or loss generated by the associate are reported in the 'Share of profits/(losses) of associates' caption in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income and therefore affect net results of the Group. These changes include subsequent depreciation, amortisation and impairment of the fair value adjustments of assets and liabilities.

 

Items that have been recognised directly in the associate's other comprehensive income are recognised in the consolidated other comprehensive income of the Group. However, when the Group's share of losses in an associate equals or exceeds its interest in the associate, the Group does not recognise further losses, unless it has incurred obligations or made payments on behalf of the associate. If the associate subsequently reports profits, the investor resumes recognising its share of those profits only after its share of the profits equals the share of losses not recognised.

 

Unrealised gains on transactions between the Group and its associates are eliminated to the extent of the Group's interest in the associates. Unrealised losses are also eliminated unless the transaction provides evidence of an impairment of the asset transferred. Amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements of associates have been adjusted where necessary to ensure consistency with the accounting policies adopted by the Group.

 

Impairment of non-financial assets

 

The Group assesses at each reporting date whether there is an indication that an asset may be impaired. If any indication exists, or when annual impairment testing for an asset is required (for goodwill or indefinite life assets), the Group estimates the asset's recoverable amount.

 

The Group bases its impairment calculation on detailed budgets and forecasts which are prepared separately for each of the Group's cash-generating units (CGUs) to which the individual assets are allocated. These budgets and forecast calculations are usually prepared in January and cover a period of five years. For longer periods, a long-term growth rate is calculated and applied to the projected future cash flows after the fifth year. The Group's three-year plan is usually approved in March. If due to the passage of time there are significant differences in the key assumptions between the forecast and plan, or if management consider that the forecast has a more sensitive level of headroom, then the impairment test will be additionally sensitised to the plan assumptions.

 

Indications of impairment might include (for goodwill and the brand assets, for instance) a significant decrease in the like-for-like sales of established stores, sustained negative publicity or a drop off in visits to our website and social media accounts.

 

An asset's recoverable amount is the higher of an assets or CGUs fair value less costs to sell and its value-in-use. It is determined for an individual asset, unless the asset does not generate cash inflows that are largely independent of those from other assets or groups of assets. Where the carrying amount of an asset or CGU exceeds its recoverable amount, the asset is considered impaired and is written down to its recoverable amount.

 

In assessing value-in-use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset or CGU.

Impairment losses of continuing operations are recognised in the statement of comprehensive income in those expense categories consistent with the function of the impaired asset.

 

For assets excluding goodwill and acquired brands with indefinite lives, an assessment is made at each reporting date as to whether there is any indication that previously recognised impairment losses may no longer exist or may have decreased. If such indication exists, the Group estimates the assets or CGUs recoverable amount.

 

A previously recognised impairment loss is reversed only if there has been a change in the assumptions used to determine the asset's recoverable amount since the last impairment loss was recognised. The reversal is limited so that the carrying amount of the asset does not exceed its recoverable amount, nor exceed the carrying amount that would have been determined, net of depreciation, had no impairment loss been recognised for the asset in prior years. Such reversal is recognised in the statement of comprehensive income, except for impairment of goodwill which is not reversed.

 

Inventories

 

Inventories are stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value, after making due allowance for obsolete and slow moving items, using the weighted average method.

 

Stock purchased in foreign currency is booked in at the hedge rate applicable to that stock (if effectively hedged) or the underlying foreign currency rate on the date that the item is brought into stock.

 

Net realisable value is the estimated selling price in the ordinary course of business, less estimated costs to sell. Transport, warehouse and distribution costs are not included in inventory.

 

The Group receives supplier rebates which are included in the cost of inventory balance (and which therefore ultimately flow through to cost of sales). These rebates are recognised on an accruals basis according to purchase levels achieved at the end of each period.

 

Share options

 

The Group operates several equity-settled share option schemes.

 

The schemes have been accounted for under the provisions of IFRS 2 and, accordingly, have been fair valued on their inception date using appropriate methodology (the Black Scholes and Monte Carlo models).

 

A cost is recorded through the statement of comprehensive income in respect of the number of options outstanding and the fair value of those options. A corresponding credit is made to the retained earnings reserve and the effect of this can be seen in the statement of changes in equity. See note 9 for more details.

 

Taxation

 

Current income tax

Current income tax assets and liabilities for the current period are measured at the amount expected to be recovered from or paid to the taxation authorities. The tax rates and tax laws used to compute the amount are those that are enacted or substantively enacted, at the reporting date, in the countries where the Group operates and generates taxable income. Tax is recognised in the statement of comprehensive income, except to the extent that it relates to items recognised in other comprehensive income or directly in equity. In this case, the tax is also recognised in other comprehensive income or directly in equity.

 

Deferred tax

Deferred tax is provided using the liability method on temporary differences between the tax bases of assets and liabilities and their carrying amounts for financial reporting purposes at the reporting date.  Deferred tax liabilities are recognised for all taxable temporary differences, except:

 

•        when the deferred tax liability arises from the initial recognition of goodwill or an asset or liability in a transaction that is not a business combination and, at the time of the transaction, affects neither the accounting profit nor taxable profit or loss; and

•        in respect of taxable temporary differences associated with investments in subsidiaries, associates and interests in joint ventures, when the timing of the reversal of the temporary differences can be controlled and it is probable that the temporary differences will not reverse in the foreseeable future.

 

Deferred tax assets are recognised for all deductible temporary differences, carry forward of unused tax credits and unused tax losses, to the extent that it is highly probable that taxable profit will be available against which the deductible temporary differences, and the carry forward of unused tax credits and unused tax losses can be utilised, except:

 

•        when the deferred tax asset relating to the deductible temporary difference arises from the initial recognition of an asset or liability in a transaction that is not a business combination and, at the time of the transaction, affects neither the accounting profit nor taxable profit or loss; and

•        in respect of deductible temporary differences associated with investments in subsidiaries, associates and interests in joint ventures, deferred tax assets are recognised only to the extent that it is probable that the temporary differences will reverse in the foreseeable future and taxable profit will be available against which the temporary differences can be utilised.

 

The carrying amount of deferred tax assets is reviewed at each reporting date and reduced to the extent that it is no longer probable that sufficient taxable profit will be available to allow all or part of the deferred tax asset to be utilised. Unrecognised deferred tax assets are re-assessed at each reporting date and are recognised to the extent that it has become probable that future taxable profits will allow the deferred tax asset to be recovered.

 

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured at the tax rates that are expected to apply in the year when the asset is realised or the liability is settled, based on tax rates (and tax laws) that have been enacted or substantively enacted at the reporting date.

 

Financial instruments

 

The Group uses derivative financial instruments such as forward currency contracts to reduce its foreign currency risk, commodity price risk and interest rate risk. Derivative financial instruments are recognised at fair value. The fair value is derived using an internal model and supported by valuation reports from the issuing banks.

 

Where a derivative financial instrument is designated as a hedge of the variability in cash flows of a recognised asset or liability, or a highly probable forecast transaction, the effective part of any gain or loss on the derivative financial instrument is recognised directly in other comprehensive income and accumulated in the hedging reserve. Any ineffective portion of the hedge is recognised immediately in the statement of comprehensive income. Effectiveness of the derivatives subject to hedge accounting is assessed prospectively at inception of the derivative, and at each reporting period end date prior to maturity.

 

Where a hedge of a forecast transaction subsequently results in the recognition of a non-financial asset, such as an item of inventory, the associated gains and losses are recognised in the initial cost of that asset.

 

When a hedging instrument expires or is sold, terminated or exercised, or the entity revokes designation of the hedge relationship but the hedged forecast transaction is still expected to occur, the cumulative gain or loss at that point remains in equity and is recognised in accordance with the above policy when the transaction occurs. If the hedged transaction is no longer expected to take place, the cumulative unrealised gain or loss recognised in equity is reclassified in the statement of other comprehensive income immediately.

 

Financial assets

 

Under IFRS 9, on initial recognition, a financial asset is classified as measured at amortised cost, fair value through profit or loss, or fair value though other comprehensive income.

 

A financial asset is measured at amortised cost using the effective interest rate if it meets both of the following conditions: it is held within a business model whose objective is to hold assets to collect contractual cash flows; and its contractual terms give rise on specified dates to cash flows that are solely payments of principal and interest on the principal amount outstanding. Under IFRS 9 trade receivables, without a significant financing component, are classified and held at amortised cost, being initially measured at the transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost less any impairment loss.

 

IFRS 9 includes an 'expected loss' model ('ECL') for recognising impairment of financial assets held at amortised cost. The Group has elected to measure loss allowances for trade receivables at an amount equal to lifetime ECLs. Credit losses are measured as the present value of all cash shortfalls (i.e. the difference between the cash flows due to the entity in accordance with the contract and the cash flows that the Group expects to receive).

 

When determining whether the credit risk of a financial asset has increased significantly since initial recognition and when estimating expected credit losses, the Group considers reasonable and supportable information that is relevant and available without undue cost or effort. This includes both quantitative and qualitative information and analysis based on the Group's historical experience and informed credit assessment and including forward-looking information. The Group performs the calculation of expected credit losses separately for each customer group. The balances involved are immaterial for further disclosure.

 

Financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income

Financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income comprise derivative financial instruments entered into by the Group that are designated as hedging instruments in hedge relationships as defined by IFRS 9. Financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income are carried in the statement of financial position at fair value with changes in fair value recognised in other comprehensive income.

 

Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss

Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss include derivative financial instruments entered into by the Group that are not designated as hedging instruments in hedge relationships as defined by IFRS 9. Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss are carried in the statement of financial position at fair value with changes in fair value recognised in profit and loss.

 

Derecognition

A financial asset (or, where applicable, a part of a financial asset or part of a group of similar financial assets) is derecognised when the rights to receive cash flows from the asset have expired and the entity has transferred its rights to receive cash flows from the asset or has assumed an obligation to pay the received cash flows in full and either (a) the entity has transferred substantially all the risks and rewards of the asset, or (b) the entity has neither transferred nor retained substantially all the risks and rewards of the asset, but has transferred control of the asset.

 

Impairment of financial assets

The Group assesses at each reporting date, on a forward-looking basis the ECLs associated with our financial assets carried at amortised cost.

 

Financial liabilities

 

Initial recognition and measurement

Financial liabilities within the scope of IFRS 9 are classified as financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss or other financial liabilities. The entity determines the classification of its financial liabilities at initial recognition. All financial liabilities are recognised initially at fair value.

 

Financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss

Financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss include financial derivatives held for trading. Financial liabilities are classified as held-for-trading if they are acquired for the purpose of selling in the near term. This category includes derivative financial instruments entered into by the Group. Gains or losses on liabilities held-for-trading are recognised in profit and loss.

 

Other financial liabilities

After initial recognition, interest-bearing loans and borrowings, trade and other payables and other liabilities are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest rate method. Gains and losses are recognised in the statement of comprehensive income when the liabilities are derecognised as well as through the effective interest rate method (EIR) amortisation process.

 

Amortised cost is calculated by taking into account any discount or premium on acquisition and fees or costs that are an integral part of the EIR. The EIR amortisation is included in finance costs.

 

Derecognition

A financial liability is derecognised when the obligation under the liability is discharged or cancelled or expires.

 

Fair value of financial instruments

The fair value of financial instruments that are traded in active markets at each reporting date is determined by reference to mark-to-market valuations obtained from the relevant bank (bid price for long positions and ask price for short positions), without any deduction for transaction costs.

 

Refinancing

Where bank borrowings are refinanced, the Group assesses whether the transaction results in new facilities or a modification of the previous facilities.

 

Where the transaction results in a modification of the facilities, the Group assesses whether that modification is substantial by reference both to whether the present value of the cash flows of the new facilities is more than 10% different to the present value of the cash flows of the previous facilities and by reference to any qualitative differences between the old and new agreements.

 

Where a modification is substantial, the Group derecognises the original liability and recognises a new liability for the modified facilities with any transaction costs expensed to the income statement. Where the modification is non-substantial, the Group amends the carrying amount of the liability to reflect the updated cash flows and amends the EIR from the modification date.

 

Cash and cash equivalents

 

Cash and cash equivalents comprise of cash at bank and in hand, less bank overdrafts to the extent the Group have the right to offset and settle these balances net.

 

The Group's cash and cash equivalents balance includes £38m (2024: £54m) of credit card receivables due to be received within three working days of the year-end date.

 

Equity

 

Equity comprises the following:

 

§  Share capital represents the nominal value of equity shares;

§ Share premium represents the excess of the consideration made for the shares, over and above the nominal valuation of those shares;

§  Retained earnings reserve represents retained profits;

§ Hedging reserve representing the fair value of the derivatives held by the Group at the period end that are accounted for under hedge accounting and that represent effective hedges;

§ Legal reserve representing the statutory reserve required by Luxembourg law as an apportionment of profit within each Luxembourg company;

§  Merger reserve representing the reserve created during the reorganisation of the Group in 2014; and

§ Foreign exchange reserve represents the cumulative differences arising in retranslation of the subsidiaries and associate's results.

 

Foreign currency translation

 

These consolidated financial statements are presented in pounds sterling.

 

The following Group companies have a functional currency of pounds sterling:

 

·    B&M European Value Retail S.A.

·    B&M European Value Retail 1 S.à r.l. (Lux Holdco)

·    B&M European Value Retail Holdco 1 Ltd (UK Holdco 1)

·    B&M European Value Retail Holdco 2 Ltd (UK Holdco 2)

·    B&M European Value Retail Holdco 3 Ltd (UK Holdco 3)

·    B&M European Value Retail Holdco 4 Ltd (UK Holdco 4)

·    EV Retail Ltd

·    B&M Retail Ltd

·    Opus Homewares Ltd

·    Heron Food Group Ltd

·    Heron Foods Ltd

·    Cooltrader Ltd

·    Heron Properties (Hull) Ltd

·    Centz N.I. Limited

 

The following Group companies have a functional currency of the Euro:

 

·    B&M European Value Retail 2 S.à r.l. (SBR Europe)

·    B&M France SAS

·    B&M European Value Retail Germany GmbH (Germany Holdco)

 

The Group companies whose functional currency is the Euro have been consolidated into the Group via retranslation of their results in line with IAS 21 'Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates'. The assets and liabilities are translated into pounds sterling at the period end exchange rate. The revenues and expenses are translated into pounds sterling at the average monthly exchange rate during the period. Any resulting foreign exchange difference is cumulatively recorded in the foreign exchange reserve with the annual effect being charged or credited to other comprehensive income.

 

Transactions entered into by the company in a currency other than the currency of the primary economic environment in which it operates (the "functional currency") are recorded at the rates ruling when the transactions occur. Foreign currency monetary assets and liabilities are translated at the rates ruling at the balance sheet date. Exchange differences arising on the retranslation of unsettled monetary assets and liabilities are recognised immediately in profit or loss.

 

Pension costs

 

The Group operates a defined contribution scheme and contributions are charged to profit or loss in the period in which they are incurred.

 

Provisions

 

Provisions are recognised when a present obligation (legal or constructive) exists as a result of a past event and where it is probable that an outflow of resources embodying economic benefits will be required to settle the obligation and the amount can be reliably estimated. Provisions are discounted where the time value of money is considered to be material.

 

The property provision contains expected dilapidation costs, which covers expected dilapidation costs for any lease considered onerous, any related to stores recently closed, any stores which are planned or at risk of closure and those stores occupied but not under contract. At the period end, 146 stores were provided against (2024: 109). This year-on-year increase is reflective of the rolling number of out of contract leases which increases as the store estate increases, and against each of which we hold a small dilapidations provision.

 

We do not provide against stores which are under contract and not considered at risk of closure (comprising the majority of the estate) as management consider that such a provision would be minimal as a result of regular store maintenance and limited fixed fit out costs.

 

We also provide against the terminal dilapidation expense on our major distribution centres, which is built up over the term of the leases held over those distribution centres.

 

Climate change considerations

In preparing the financial statements, the Group has considered the impact of climate change, particularly in the context of the TCFD disclosures and the Group's ESG strategy included in the Annual Report.

 

The Group's existing fixed asset replacement programme is phased over several years and therefore any changes in the requirements associated with climate change would not have a material impact in any given year. The costs expected to be incurred in connection with the Group's commitments are included within the Group's budget used to support the going concern and viability assessments and the impairment reviews of non-current assets.

 

Given the identified risks are expected to be present in the medium to long-term, the impact of climate change on the going concern and viability of the Group over the next three years is not expected to be material and is therefore not currently classified as a key source of estimation of uncertainty.

 

Critical judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

 

The key assumptions concerning the future and other key sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date, that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year, are described below. The Group based its assumptions and estimates on parameters available when the financial information was prepared. However, existing circumstances and assumptions about future developments may change due to market changes or circumstances arising beyond the control of the Group. Such changes are reflected in the assumptions when they occur.

  

Critical judgements

 

Investments in associates

 

Multi-lines International Company Ltd (Multi-lines), which is 50% owned by the Group, has been judged by management to be an associate rather than a subsidiary or a joint venture.

 

Under IFRS 10 control is determined by: 

·    Power over the investee.

·    Exposure, or rights, to variable returns from its involvement with the investee.

·    The ability to use its power over the investee to affect the amount of the investor's returns.

Although 50% owned, B&M Group does not have voting rights or substantive rights. Therefore, the level of power over the business is considered to be more in keeping with that of an associate than a joint-venture and, therefore, it has been treated as such within these consolidated financial statements.

 

Hedge accounting

 

The Group hedge accounts for stock purchases made in US Dollars.

 

There is significant management judgement involved in forecasting the level of dollar purchases to be made within the period that the forward hedge has been bought for.

 

Management takes a cautious view that no more than 80% of the operational hedging in place can be subject to hedge accounting, due to forecast uncertainties, and assesses every forward hedge taken out, on inception, if that figure should be reduced further by considering general purchasing trends, and discussion of specific purchasing decisions.

 

Estimation uncertainty

 

There are no areas of estimation uncertainty where management consider that there is a significant risk of a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year.

 

Standards and interpretations not yet applied by the Group

 

The following amendments to accounting standards and interpretations, issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), have not yet been applied by the Group in the period. None of these are expected to have a significant impact on the Group's consolidated results or financial position:

IASB effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026

Standard	Summary of changes	EU endorsement status
Amendments to IFRS 9 Recognition of a Financial Asset or Financial Liability	The amendments provide an exception for the derecognition of financial liabilities, allowing companies to derecognise its trade payable before the settlement date, when it uses an electronic payment system that meets all of the exception criteria.	Not yet endorsed.

IASB effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027

Standard	Summary of changes	EU endorsement status
IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements	The standard requires the presentation of two new defined subtotals in the income statement - operating profit and profit before financing and income taxes and defined categories (operating, investing and financing). The disclosure of APMs that are not subtotalled in the financial statements must be specified.	Not yet endorsed.

 

2          Segmental information

IFRS 8 "Operating Segments" requires the Group's segments to be identified on the basis of internal reports about the components of the Group that are regularly reviewed by the chief operating decision maker to assess performance and allocate resources across each reporting segment.

 

The chief operating decision maker has been identified as the Executive Directors who monitor the operating results of the retail segments for the purpose of making decisions about resource allocation and performance assessment.

 

For management purposes, the Group is organised into three operating segments, UK B&M, UK Heron and France B&M segments comprising the three separately operated business units within the Group.

 

Items that fall into the corporate category, which is not a separate segment but is presented to reconcile the balances to those presented in the main statements, include those related to the Luxembourg or associate entities, Group financing, corporate transactions, any tax adjustments and items we consider to be adjusting (see note 3).

 

The average Euro rate for translation purposes was €1.1885/£ during the year, with the period-end rate being €1.1955/£ (2024: €1.1587/£ and €1.1694/£ respectively).

 

52 week period to 29 March 2025	UK B&M	UK Heron	France B&M	Corporate	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Revenue	4,483	546	542	-	5,571
EBITDA (note 3)	737	39	91	(27)	840
Depreciation and amortisation	(207)	(23)	(43)	-	(273)
Profit/(loss) before interest and tax	530	16	48	(27)	567
Net finance expense	(51)	(2)	(16)	(67)	(136)
Income tax (charge)/credit	(123)	(3)	(8)	22	(112)
Segment profit/(loss)	356	11	24	(72)	319
Total assets	3,265	280	436	26	4,007
Total liabilities	(1,601)	(120)	(321)	(1,213)	(3,255)
Capital expenditure*	(103)	(14)	(16)	-	(133)

 

 

53 week period to 30 March 2024	UK B&M	UK Heron	France B&M	Corporate	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Revenue	4,410	560	514	-	5,484
EBITDA (note 3)	743	50	89	(17)	865
Depreciation and amortisation	(195)	(23)	(40)	-	(258)
Profit/(loss) before interest and tax	548	27	49	(17)	607
Net finance expense	(48)	(1)	(14)	(46)	(109)
Income tax (charge)/credit	(127)	(6)	(9)	11	(131)
Segment profit/(loss)	373	20	26	(52)	367
Total assets	2,905	284	413	23	3,625
Total liabilities	(1,491)	(119)	(307)	(974)	(2,891)
Capital expenditure*	(97)	(15)	(14)	-	(126)

 

* Capital expenditure includes both tangible and intangible capital.

 

Adjusted operating profit by segment is equal to the profit before interest and tax figures given above.

Revenue is disaggregated geographically as follows:

 

Period to	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Revenue due from UK operations	5,029	4,970
Revenue due from French operations	542	514
Overall revenue	5,571	5,484

 

Non-current assets (excluding deferred tax and financial instruments) are disaggregated geographically as follows:

 

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
UK operations	2,381	2,315
French operations	271	254
Luxembourg operations	7	5
Overall non-current assets	2,659	2,574

 

The Group operates a small wholesale operation, with the relevant disaggregation of revenue as follows:

 

Period to	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Revenue due to sales made in stores	5,541	5,454
Revenue due to wholesale activities	30	30
Overall revenue	5,571	5,484

 

3          Reconciliation of non-IFRS measures from the statement of comprehensive income

 

The Group reports a selection of alternative performance measures as detailed below. The Directors believe that these measures provide additional information that is useful to the users of the accounts.

 

EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating profit and adjusted profit are all non-IFRS measures and therefore a reconciliation from the statement of comprehensive income is set out below.

 

Period to	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Profit on ordinary activities before interest and tax	567	607
Add back depreciation and amortisation	273	258
EBITDA	840	865
Costs in relation to significant property transactions	5	9
Costs in relation to significant infrastructure projects	4	-
Group trading director settlement	12	-
Non-underlying impact of foreign exchange	3	(2)
Adjusted EBITDA	864	872
Depreciation and amortisation	(273)	(258)
Adjusted operating profit	591	614
Interest costs related to lease liabilities (note 6)	(77)	(69)
Net other finance costs (note 6)	(59)	(44)
Adjusted profit before tax	455	501
Adjusted tax	(118)	(132)
Adjusted profit for the period	337	369

 

On a pre-IFRS 16 basis, the costs in relation to significant infrastructure projects adjusting item was £5m and the total of the pre-IFRS 16 adjusting items was £25m compared to the £24m above on a post-IFRS 16 basis (2024: no differences).

 

Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16), adjusted operating profit (pre-IFRS 16) and adjusted profit (pre-IFRS 16) are also non-IFRS measures and are reconciled as follows:

 

Period to	52 weeks ended  29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
EBITDA (above)	840	865
Remove effects of IFRS 16 on EBITDA	(245)	(243)
EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)	595	622
Adjusting items (above)	25	7
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)	620	629
Pre-IFRS 16 depreciation and amortisation	(92)	(82)
Adjusted operating profit (pre-IFRS 16)	528	547
Net other finance costs	(59)	(44)
Adjusted profit before tax (pre-IFRS 16)	469	503
Adjusted tax	(122)	(133)
Adjusted profit (pre-IFRS 16) for the period	347	370

 

The effects of IFRS 16 on EBITDA caption reflects the difference between IAS 17 and IFRS 16 accounting and largely consists of the additional rent expense the Group would have incurred under the IAS 17 standard.

 

Adjusting items include gains and losses associated with any significant projects and the non-underlying impact of foreign exchange.

In reference to the captions in the tables above;

 

Costs in relation to significant property transactions includes the expenses associated with the acquisition of options in relation to several ex-Wilko and ex-Homebase stores. These deals are now completed and no further expense is expected in relation to these transactions.

 

Costs in relation to significant infrastructure projects includes the pre-operational costs of the Ellesmere Port site and disruption costs around building and implementing the technical infrastructure to enable our DC expansion project to proceed in France.

 

Both projects are significant in nature, with Ellesmere Port representing the largest infrastructure project within the Group since Bedford opened in 2020, and the French project representing a step change in the capacity of that segment.

 

In France, the disruption costs experienced have been calculated by reference to increased cost to serve per volume unit, which was driven by increased headcount required over a specific time period within the year. These costs have normalised prior to the year-end date.

 

The overall French expansion project is scheduled to complete in early FY27 and our Ellesmere Port site is expected to be fully operational in late FY26, with further costs expected to accrue over those time periods.

 

Group trading director settlement represents the sum payable to the former Group trading director following revised agreements being made with this director in June and December 2024. These agreements included specifying his retirement as director of Group subsidiaries in March 2025, and his entitlement to £5m termination and £6m consultancy payments in relation to the periods in FY25 (after June 2024) and FY26 respectively, with the remainder of the presented adjusting item consisting of employer payroll taxes.

 

The sums payable are in full and final settlement of the maximum sums payable under the previously announced retention agreement in respect of the same two periods. In entering into the revised agreements it was expected that a degree of involvement as a consultant would be required in FY26 to ensure a smooth transition. However, following the quick and successful transitional period that has already taken place for that role, this is no longer expected and as such the £6m consultancy payment has subsequently been considered to be a provision by Group management and has been recognised in FY25.

 

The adjusting item does not include the former Group trading director's salary, benefits or annual bonus or the full costs of the newly appointed trading director. It is considered by management to be an adjusting item as it is material and one-off in nature and does not relate to the ongoing trade of the Group.

 

The settlement in relation to the Group CEO, which includes in FY25 the costs of all payments due in respect of his notice period, has not been included as an adjusting item as this agreement is in-line with usual settlements in relation to directors.

 

Non-underlying impact of foreign exchange includes the fair value of derivatives which have yet to mature and any gains or losses in relation to foreign exchange on intercompany balances only.

 

Whilst the business is undergoing a corporate redomicile and has incurred £1m of expenses in relation to this to the year end date, it has not been included as an adjusting item as it has not had a meaningful impact in the presented period. We expect that substantial costs will be incurred in FY26, with the project planned to complete before the end of calendar 2025. We therefore expect to include those costs as an adjusting item in our FY26 set of accounts.

 

Adjusted tax represents the tax charge per the statement of comprehensive income as adjusted only for the effects of the adjusting items detailed above.

 

The following table reconciles the statutory figures to the adjusted and adjusted (pre-IFRS 16) figures in the statutory profit and loss format on a line-by-line basis:

 

52-week period to 29 March 2025	Statutory figures	Adjusting items	Adjusted figures	Impact of IFRS 16	Adjusted (pre-IFRS 16)
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Revenue	5,571	-	5,571	-	5,571
Cost of sales	(3,479)	-	(3,479)	-	(3,479)
Gross profit	2,092	-	2,092	-	2,092
Depreciation and amortisation	(273)	-	(273)	181	(92)
Other administrative expenses	(1,253)	24	(1,229)	(244)	(1,473)
Operating profit	566	24	590	(63)	527
Share of profits in associates	1	-	1	-	1
Profit before interest and tax	567	24	591	(63)	528
Finance costs relating to right-of-use assets	(77)	-	(77)	77	-
Other finance costs	(66)	-	(66)	(0)	(66)
Finance income	7	-	7	-	7
Profit before tax	431	24	455	14	469
Income tax expense	(112)	(6)	(118)	(4)	(122)
Profit for the period	319	18	337	10	347

 

53-week period to 30 March 2024	Statutory figures	Adjusting items	Adjusted figures	Impact of IFRS 16	Adjusted (pre-IFRS 16)
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Revenue	5,484	-	5,484	-	5,484
Cost of sales	(3,449)	-	(3,449)	-	(3,449)
Gross profit	2,035	-	2,035	-	2,035
Depreciation and amortisation	(258)	-	(258)	176	(82)
Other administrative expenses	(1,169)	7	(1,162)	(243)	(1,405)
Operating profit	608	7	615	(67)	548
Share of losses in associates	(1)	-	(1)	-	(1)
Profit before interest and tax	607	7	614	(67)	547
Finance costs relating to right-of-use assets	(69)	-	(69)	69	-
Other finance costs	(50)	1	(49)	-	(49)
Finance income	10	(5)	5	-	5
Profit before tax	498	3	501	2	503
Income tax expense	(131)	(1)	(132)	(1)	(133)
Profit for the period	367	2	369	1	370

 

The tables below give the reconciliation between the operating profit and adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) by segment:

 

52-week period to 29 March 2025	UK B&M	UK Heron	France B&M	Corporate	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Profit/(loss) before interest and tax	530	16	48	(27)	567
Adjusting items (above)	-	-	-	24	24
Adjusted operating profit/(loss)	530	16	48	(3)	591
Depreciation and amortisation (pre-IFRS 16)	66	14	12	-	92
Impact of IFRS 16	(51)	(0)	(12)	0	(63)
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)	545	30	48	(3)	620
53-week period to 30 March 2024	UK B&M	UK Heron	France B&M	Corporate	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Profit/(loss) before interest and tax	548	27	49	(17)	607
Adjusting items (above)	-	-	-	7	7
Adjusted operating profit/(loss)	548	27	49	(10)	614
Depreciation and amortisation (pre-IFRS 16)	59	13	10	-	82
Impact of IFRS 16	(51)	(4)	(12)	-	(67)
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)	556	36	47	(10)	629

 

 

The segmental split in EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA reconciles as follows:

 

52-week period to 29 March 2025	UK B&M	UK Heron	France B&M	Corporate	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Profit/(loss) before interest and tax	530	16	48	(27)	567
Add back depreciation and amortisation	207	23	43	-	273
EBITDA	737	39	91	(27)	840
Adjusting items (above)	-	-	-	24	24
Adjusted EBITDA	737	39	91	(3)	864

 

53-week period to 30 March 2024	UK B&M	UK Heron	France B&M	Corporate	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Profit/(loss) before interest and tax	548	27	49	(17)	607
Add back depreciation and amortisation	195	23	40	-	258
EBITDA	743	50	89	(17)	865
Adjusting items (above)	-	-	-	7	7
Adjusted EBITDA	743	50	89	(10)	872

 

Adjusted EPS and diluted EPS measures are reconciled in note 11.

 

Post-tax free cash flow is reconciled to the consolidated statement of cash flows as follows:

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Cash flows from operating activities	784	862
Income tax paid	(109)	(116)
Purchase of property, plant and equipment	(131)	(123)
Purchase of intangible assets	(2)	(3)
Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment	22	2
Repayment of the principal in relation to lease liabilities	(176)	(171)
Payment of interest in relation to right-of-use assets	(77)	(69)
Post-tax free cash flow	311	382

 

Adjusted EBITDA and related measures are not measures of performance or liquidity under IFRS and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of profit, or as an indicator of the Group's operating performance or cash flows from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS.

 

4          Reconciliation of the 52-week results from the 53-week adjusted results

 

Our prior year comparatives are on a 53-week basis. Group management consider that presenting an adjusted 52-week result is helpful to the users of this annual report in order to directly compare like-for-like periods.

 

Therefore, we present a reconciliation to an adjusted 52-week statement of comprehensive income derived from the adjusted 53-week statement of comprehensive income by removing the final week of the previous financial year. The adjusting items are those detailed in note 3.

 

Adjusted	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025 £'m	52 weeks ended 23 March 2024 £'m	Week 53 £'m	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024 £'m
Revenue	5,571	5,372	112	5,484
Cost of sales	(3,479)	(3,379)	(70)	(3,449)
Gross profit	2,092	1,993	42	2,035
Operating costs	(1,472)	(1,377)	(29)	(1,406)
Adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16)	620	616	13	629
Depreciation and amortisation (pre-IFRS 16)	(92)	(80)	(2)	(82)
Operating impact of IFRS 16	63	66	1	67
Adjusted operating profit	591	602	12	614
Adjusting items	(24)	(7)	(0)	(7)
Profit before interest and tax	567	595	12	607
Finance costs relating to right-of-use assets	(77)	(68)	(1)	(69)
Other net finance costs	(59)	(39)	(1)	(40)
Profit before tax	431	488	10	498

 

5          Operating profit

The following items have been charged in arriving at operating profit:

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Auditor's remuneration	1	1
Payments to auditors in respect of non-audit services:
Other assurance services	0	0
Cost of inventories recognised as an expense (included in cost of sales)	3,479	3,449
Depreciation of owned property, plant and equipment	88	79
Amortisation (included within administration costs)	2	2
Depreciation of right-of-use assets	183	177
Impairment of right-of-use assets	3	5
Operating lease rentals	4	3
Sublet income	(2)	(2)
Other operational income	(9)	(6)
(Profit)/loss on sale of property, plant and equipment	(0)	1
Profits on sale and leasebacks	(0)	-
Loss on foreign exchange	1	7

 

6          Finance costs and finance income

Finance costs include all interest-related income and expenses.  The following amounts have been included in the continuing profit line for each reporting period presented:

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Interest on debt and borrowings	(63)	(47)
Ongoing amortisation of finance fees	(2)	(2)
Interest rate swap derivative	(1)	(0)
Total adjusted finance expense	(66)	(49)
Release of remaining unamortised fees on previous facilities	-	(1)
Total other finance expense	(66)	(50)
Finance costs on lease liabilities	(77)	(69)
Total finance expense	(143)	(119)

 

The finance expense reconciles to the statement of cash flows as follows:

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Cash
Finance costs paid in relation to debt and borrowings	56	41
Finance costs paid in relation to lease liabilities	77	69
Fees paid in relation to refinancing	4	15
Finance costs paid	137	125
Non-cash
Movement of accruals in relation to debt and borrowings	7	6
Capitalisation of paid fees in relation to new facilities	(4)	(15)
Release of remaining unamortised fees on previous facilities	-	1
Ongoing amortisation of finance fees	2	2
Interest rate swap derivative	1	(0)
Total finance expense	143	119

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Interest income on loans and bank accounts	7	4
Interest income on overpaid corporation tax	-	1
Total adjusted finance income	7	5
Gain on tender of corporate bonds	-	5
Total finance income	7	10

 

Total net adjusted finance costs are therefore:

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Total adjusted finance expense	(66)	(49)
Total adjusted finance income	7	5
Total net adjusted finance costs	(59)	(44)

 

7          Employee remuneration

Expense recognised for employee benefits is analysed below:

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Wages and salaries	719	657
Social security costs	56	47
Share-based payment expense	3	3
Pensions - defined contribution plans	12	10
Total remuneration	790	717

 

There are £2m of defined contribution pension liabilities owed by the Group at the period end (2024: £2m).

 

B&M France operates a scheme where they must provide a certain amount per employee to pay upon their retirement date. The accrual on this scheme at the period end was <£1m (2024: <£1m).

 

The average monthly number of persons employed by the Group during the period was:

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
Sales staff	39,347	39,928
Administration	1,294	1,187
Total staff	40,641	41,115

 

8          Key management remuneration

Key management personnel and Directors' remuneration includes the following:

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Directors' remuneration:
Short-term employee benefits	4	4
Termination payments	1	-
Benefits accrued under the share option scheme	0	1
Pension	-	0
Total	5	5
Key management expense (includes Directors' remuneration):
Short-term employee benefits	13	14
Termination payments	7	-
Benefits accrued under the share option scheme	1	1
Pension	0	0
Other long-term benefits	1	-
Total	22	15
Amounts in respect of the highest paid director emoluments:
Short-term employee benefits	2	3
Termination payments	1	-
Benefits accrued under the share option scheme	0	0
Pension	-	0
Total	3	3

 

The emoluments disclosed above are of the Directors and key management personnel who have served as a Director within any of the continuing Group companies.

 

9          Share options

The Group operates three equity-settled share option schemes which split down to various tranches. Details of these schemes follow.

1) Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) awards

 

The LTIP was re-adopted by the Board on 23 July 2024. No grant under this scheme can be made more than 10 years after this date. The previous LTIP was adopted by the Board on 29 May 2014 and expired on 29 May 2024.

 

Eligibility

Employees and Executive Directors of the Group are eligible for the LTIP and the awards are made at the discretion of the remuneration committee.

 

Limits & pricing

A fixed number of options are offered to each participant, with the pricing set at £nil. The options offered to each individual cannot exceed a total value of 250% of the participants base salary where the value is measured as the market value of the shares on grant multiplied by the number of options awarded, with the whole scheme limited to 10% of the share capital in issue.

 

Dividend credits

All participants in LTIP awards are entitled to dividend credits, where the notional dividend they would have received on the maximum number of shares available under their award is converted into new share options and added to the award based upon the share price on the date of the dividend. These additional awards have been reflected in the tables below.

 

Vesting & exercise

The share options are subject to a set of conditions measured over a three-year performance period as follows:

 

LTIP Executive ("A") awards

 

·    50% of the awards are subject to a TSR performance condition, where the Group's TSR over the performance period is compared with a comparator group. The awards vest on a sliding scale where the full 50% is awarded if the Group falls in the upper quartile, 12.5% vests if the Group falls exactly at the median, and 0% below that.

 

·    50% of the awards are subject to a diluted EPS performance target. The awards vest on sliding scales based upon the EPS as follows:

 

Award	EPS as at	50% paid at	42.5% paid at	12.5% paid at
LTIP 2018A	March-21	28.0p	N/A	23.0p
LTIP 2019A	March-22	33.0p	N/A	27.0p
LTIP 2020A	March-23	30.0p	N/A	25.0p
LTIP 2021A	March-24	45.0p	N/A	37.0p
LTIP 2022A	March-25	50.0p	N/A	42.0p
LTIP 2023A	March-26	43.9p	N/A	37.9p
LTIP 2024A	March-27	47.4p	42.3p	38.3p

 

Below the 12.5% boundary, no options vest. Diluted EPS is defined as adjusted (pre-IFRS 16) diluted EPS on all schemes until LTIP 2024A where it is adjusted diluted EPS, see note 11.

 

·    The performance period is the three years ending the period end specified in the EPS table above.

·    Once the performance period concludes, the calculated number of share options remaining are then subject to a two-year holding period.

·    The share options vest at the conclusion of the holding period.

 

LTIP Restricted ("B") awards

 

·    Group EBITDA must be positive in each year of the LTIP.

·    The awards also have an employee performance condition attached.

 

Vested awards can be exercised up to the tenth anniversary of grant.

 

Tranches

 

There have been several awards of the LTIP, with the details as follows.

 

Note that the LTIP Executive awards have been split into the element subject to the TSR (50%) and the element subject to the EPS (50%) since these were valued separately.

 

The TSR awards market condition has been included in the fair value calculation for those awards while all non-market conditions have not been included. Expected volatility has been calculated based upon the historic share price volatility of the Group and those of comparable companies.

 

The key information used in the valuation of these tranches is as follows:

 

Scheme	Date of grant	Original options granted	Fair value of each option	Risk free rate	Expected life (years)	Volatility
2018A-TSR	7 Aug 17	40,610	272p	0.52%	5	32%
2018A-EPS	7 Aug 17	40,610	351p	0.52%	5	32%
2019A-TSR	22 Aug 19	275,640.5	251p	0.37%	5	31%
2019A-EPS	22 Aug 19	275,640.5	361p	0.37%	5	31%
2020A-TSR	30 Jul 20	141,718	409p	-0.11%	5	48%
2020A-EPS	30 Jul 20	141,718	464p	-0.11%	5	48%
2021A-TSR	3 Aug 21	218,861	354p	0.23%	5	37%
2021A-EPS	3 Aug 21	218,861	560p	0.23%	5	37%
2022A-TSR	17 Nov 22	309,342	124p	3.16%	5	31%
2022A-EPS	17 Nov 22	309,342	386p	3.16%	5	31%
2023A-TSR	1 Aug 23	224,422	409p	4.75%	5	32%
2023A-EPS	1 Aug 23	224,422	548p	4.75%	5	32%
2024A-TSR	1 Aug 24	342,624	174p	4.04%	5	31%
2024A-EPS	1 Aug 24	342,625	456p	4.04%	5	31%
2020/B1	30 Jul 20	303,092	463p	-0.12%	3	39%
2021/B1	3 Aug 21	281,950	560p	0.12%	3	42%
2022/B1	3 Aug 22	396,877	437p	1.75%	3	32%
2022/B2	15 Dec 22	3,641	412p	1.75%	3	32%
2023/B1	1 Aug 23	414,833	548p	4.77%	3	31%
2024/B1	1 Aug 24	554,001	455p	3.77%	3	31%

 

 

Scheme	Options at 30 Mar 24	Granted	Dividend credit	Forfeited	Exercised	Options at 29 Mar 25
2019A-TSR	312,583*	-	6,467	-	(319,050)	-
2019A-EPS	312,583*	-	6,467	-	(319,050)	-
2020A-TSR	197,369*	-	17,023	-	-	214,392*
2020A-EPS	197,369*	-	17,023	-	-	214,392*
2021A-TSR	191,790	-	14,537	(23,247)	-	183,080*
2021A-EPS	191,790	-	8,013	(98,887)	-	100,916*
2022A-TSR	349,537	-	30,148	-	-	379,685
2022A-EPS	349,537	-	30,148	-	-	379,685
2023A-TSR	235,204	-	20,286	(57,073)	-	198,417
2023A-EPS	235,204	-	20,286	(57,072)	-	198,418
2024A-TSR	-	342,624	22,005	(177,332)	-	187,297
2024A-EPS	-	342,625	22,005	(177,332)	-	187,298
2021/B1	251,134	-	5,031	(2,182)	(248,414)	5,569
2022/B1	380,862	-	32,183	(27,299)	-	385,746
2022/B2	4,061	-	350	-	-	4,411
2023/B1	387,478	-	32,344	(59,714)	-	360,108
2024/B1	-	554,001	35,053	(96,397)	-	492,657

 

Scheme	Options at 25 Mar 23	Granted	Dividend credit	Forfeited	Exercised	Options at 30 Mar 24
2018A-TSR	230,321*	-	3,978	-	(234,299)	-
2018A-EPS	297,452*	-	5,138	-	(302,590)	-
2019A-TSR	293,188*	-	19,395	-	-	312,583*
2019A-EPS	293,188*	-	19,395	-	-	312,583*
2020A-TSR	185,124	-	12,245	-	-	197,369*
2020A-EPS	185,124	-	12,245	-	-	197,369*
2021A-TSR	251,037	-	11,899	(71,146)	-	191,790
2021A-EPS	251,037	-	11,899	(71,146)	-	191,790
2022A-TSR	327,851	-	21,686	-	-	349,537
2022A-EPS	327,851	-	21,686	-	-	349,537
2023A-TSR	-	224,422	10,782	-	-	235,204
2023A-EPS	-	224,422	10,782	-	-	235,204
2020/B1	302,339	-	4,789	(2,817)	(304,311)	-
2021/B1	257,138	-	15,921	(21,925)	-	251,134
2022/B1	408,264	-	24,705	(52,107)	-	380,862
2022/B2	3,809	-	252	-	-	4,061
2023/B1	-	414,833	18,058	(45,413)	-	387,478

 

*These share options are in a two-year holding period.

 

2) Deferred Bonus Share Plan (DBSP) awards

 

The DBSP was adopted by the Board on 30 July 2018. No grant under this scheme can be made more than 10 years after this date.

 

The DBSP differs from the LTIP awards in that there are no vesting conditions.

 

The scheme has been set up in order to allocate a specified proportion of the Executive Director's annual bonus into £nil price share options which are then placed in holding for three years.

 

As there are no vesting conditions, these awards have been valued at the amount of the bonus to be converted into share options under the scheme.

 

There are annual awards of the scheme. The 2025 award will be made after this set of statutory accounts have been published and will therefore be reported in the next Annual Report.

  

Scheme	Options at 30 Mar 24	Granted	Dividend credit	Forfeited	Exercised	Options at 29 Mar 25
2021 Bonus allocation	104,359	-	2,160	-	(106,519)	-
2022 Bonus allocation	324,517	-	27,990	-	-	352,507
2023 Bonus allocation	165,640	-	14,289	-	-	179,929
2024 Bonus allocation	-	244,969	21,127	-	-	266,096

 

Scheme	Options at 25 Mar 23	Granted	Dividend credit	Forfeited	Exercised	Options at 30 Mar 24
2020 Bonus allocation	59,673	-	1,031	-	(60,704)	-
2021 Bonus allocation	97,885	-	6,474	-	-	104,359
2022 Bonus allocation	304,382	-	20,135	-	-	324,517
2023 Bonus allocation	-	155,365	10,275	-	-	165,640

 

The fair values of the presented schemes on inception were £1.2m (2024), £0.8m (2023), £1.1m (2022), £0.5m (2021) and £0.2m (2020).

 

3) Specific LTIP awards

 

The remuneration committee are able to award specific share schemes under the LTIP framework, where considered appropriate. There were two such schemes, both relating to the buy-out of executive share option schemes held prior to appointment with the business. Both schemes had no vesting conditions but were time limited with details given below.

 

Scheme	Options at 30 Mar 24	Granted	Dividend credit	Forfeited	Exercised	Options at 29 Mar 25
Buy-out Nov-24	36,601	-	1,341	-	(37,942)	-

 

Scheme	Options at 25 Mar 23	Granted	Dividend credit	Forfeited	Exercised	Options at 30 Mar 24
Buy-out Nov-23	34,330	-	927	-	(35,257)	-
Buy-out Nov-24	34,330	-	2,271	-	-	36,601

 

The fair values of the presented schemes on inception were both £0.1m.

 

The summary period-end position is as follows:

 

Period ended	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
Share options outstanding at the start of the year	4,227,618	4,144,323
Share options granted during the year (including via dividend credit)	1,870,495	1,285,010
Share options forfeited or lapsed during the year	(776,535)	(264,554)
Share options exercised in the year	(1,030,975)	(937,161)
Share options outstanding at the end of the year	4,290,603	4,227,618
Of which;
Share options that are not vested	2,773,722	2,576,597
Share options that are in holding	1,511,312	1,651,021
Share options that are vested and eligible for exercise	5,569	-

 

All exercised options are satisfied by the issue of new share capital. The weighted average share price on exercise was £4.26 (2024: £5.52). All outstanding options have a £nil (2024: £nil) exercise price and the weighted average remaining contractual life is 1.9 years (2024: 1.7 years).

 

In the year, £3m has been charged to the consolidated statement of comprehensive income in respect to the share option schemes (2024: £3m). At the end of the year the outstanding share options had a carrying value of £8m (2024: £7m).

 

10        Taxation

 

The relationship between the expected tax expense based on the standard rate of corporation tax in the UK of 25% in both periods and the tax expense actually recognised in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income can be reconciled as follows:

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Current tax expense	105	122
Deferred tax charge	7	9
Total tax expense recorded in profit and loss	112	131
Current tax credit in other comprehensive income	(0)	(1)
Deferred tax charge/(credit) in other comprehensive income	1	(0)
Total tax charge/(credit) recorded in other comprehensive income	1	(1)
Result for the year before tax	431	498
Expected tax charge at the standard tax rate	108	124
Effect of:
Expenses not deductible for tax purposes	5	6
Income not taxable	(0)	(1)
Lease accounting	(1)	(0)
Foreign operations taxed at local rates	1	1
Changes in the rate of corporation tax	-	0
Adjustment in respect of prior years	(1)	0
Hold over gains on fixed assets	1	(0)
Relating to share options	0	-
Other	(1)	1
Actual tax expense	112	131

 

Deferred taxation

 

Statement of financial position	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Accelerated tax depreciation	(24)	(17)
Relating to intangible brand assets	(27)	(27)
Fair valuing of assets and liabilities (asset)	3	2
Fair valuing of assets and liabilities (liability)	(2)	(2)
Temporary differences relating to the tax accounting for leases (asset)	92	90
Temporary differences relating to the tax accounting for leases (liability)	(70)	(68)
Movement in provision	0	1
Relating to share options	2	4
Held over gains on fixed assets	(4)	(4)
Other temporary differences	0	0
Net deferred tax liability	(30)	(21)
Analysed as;
Deferred tax asset	5	4
Deferred tax liability	(35)	(25)

 

Statement of comprehensive income	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Accelerated tax depreciation	(7)	(7)
Relating to intangible brand assets	-	(0)
Fair valuing of assets and liabilities	1	(2)
Temporary differences relating to the tax accounting for leases	0	(1)
Movement in provision	(0)	0
Relating to share options	(2)	1
Held over gains on fixed assets	(0)	-
Other temporary differences	0	(0)
Net deferred tax charge	(8)	(9)
Analysed as;
Total deferred tax charge in profit or loss	(7)	(9)
Total deferred tax (charge)/credit in other comprehensive income	(1)	0

 

At the period end there are £1m of unrecognised deferred tax assets within the Group in relation to a corporate interest restriction (2024: £2m) and £20m of unrecognised deferred tax assets in respect of carried forward losses in our Luxembourg entities, which we do not expect to be able to utilise in the future (2024: £19m).

 

The Group offsets tax assets and liabilities if and only if it has a legally enforceable right to set off current tax assets and current tax liabilities and the deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities relate to income taxes levied by the same tax authority.

 

The Group has performed an assessment of the potential exposure to Pillar Two income taxes under Luxembourg legislation with its external tax specialists. This assessment was based upon our most recent country-by-country reporting and the methodology we intend to use in our future country-by-country and Pillar Two reporting and the most recent financial statements for the constituents of the Group. Based on the assessment, the Pillar Two effective tax rates in all the jurisdictions in which the Group have trading operations are above 15%, which is expected to continue in future years and other jurisdictions have been analysed to meet other safe harbour tests or are not expected to have significant impact. We therefore intend to apply the transitional safe harbour rules which will exempt the Group from applying the full Pillar Two rules from the first year of their application.

 

11         Earnings per share

Basic earnings per share (EPS) amounts are calculated by dividing the net profit or loss for the financial period attributable to ordinary equity holders of the parent by the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding at each period end.

 

Diluted EPS amounts are calculated by dividing the net profit attributable to ordinary equity holders of the parent by the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding during each year plus the weighted average number of ordinary shares that would be issued on conversion of any dilutive potential ordinary shares into ordinary shares. 

 

Adjusted (and adjusted (pre-IFRS 16)) basic and diluted EPS are calculated in the same way as above, except using adjusted profit attributable to ordinary equity holders of the parent, as defined in note 3.

 

There are share option schemes in place (see note 9) which have a dilutive effect on both periods presented.

 

The following reflects the income and share data used in the EPS computations:

 

Period ended	29 March  2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Profit for the period attributable to owners of the parent	319	367
Adjusted profit for the period attributable to owners of the parent	337	369
Adjusted (pre-IFRS 16) profit for the period attributable to owners of the parent	347	370
	Thousands	Thousands
Weighted average number of ordinary shares for basic earnings per share	1,003,386	1,002,392
Dilutive effect of employee share options	1,869	2,282
Weighted average number of ordinary shares adjusted for the effect of dilution	1,005,255	1,004,674
	Pence	Pence
Basic earnings per share	31.8	36.6
Diluted earnings per share	31.8	36.5
Adjusted basic earnings per share	33.6	36.8
Adjusted diluted earnings per share	33.5	36.7
Adjusted (pre-IFRS 16) basic earnings per share	34.6	36.9
Adjusted (pre-IFRS 16) diluted earnings per share	34.5	36.8

 

12        Investments in associates

 

Period ended	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Net book value
Carrying value at the start of the period	5	8
Dividends received	-	(1)
Share of profits/(losses) in associates since the prior year valuation exercise	1	(1)
Effect of foreign exchange on translation	(0)	(1)
Carrying value at the end of the period	6	5

 

The Group has a 50% interest in Multi-lines International Company Ltd (Multi-lines), a company incorporated in Hong Kong. The principal activity of the company is the purchase and sale of goods and their registered address is 29/F, Tower B, Capital Tower, 38 Wai Yip Street, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong.

 

The Group has a 22.5% holding in Centz Retail Holdings Limited (Centz), a company incorporated in Ireland. The principal activity of the company is retail sales and their registered address is 5 Old Dublin Road, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin.

 

None of the entities have discontinued operations or other comprehensive income, except that on consolidation both entities have a foreign exchange translation difference.

 

Period ended	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Multi-lines
Non-current assets	19	13
Current assets	56	76
Non-current liabilities	-	-
Current liabilities	(71)	(86)
Net assets	4	3
Revenue	301	242
Profit/(loss)	1	(3)

 

 

Period ended	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Centz
Non-current assets	9	11
Current assets	28	27
Non-current liabilities	(6)	(11)
Current liabilities	(11)	(9)
Net assets	20	18
Revenue	65	64
Profit	3	2

 

The figures for both associates show 12 months to December 2024 (prior year: 12 months to December 2023), being the period used in the valuation of the associate.

 

13        Intangible assets

 

	Goodwill	Software	Brands	Other	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Cost or valuation
At 25 March 2023	921	10	114	1	1,046
Additions	-	3	-	-	3
Disposals	-	(0)	-	-	(0)
Remeasure	-	-	0	-	0
Effect of retranslation	(0)	(0)	-	(0)	(0)
At 30 March 2024	921	13	114	1	1,049
Additions	-	2	-	-	2
Disposals	-	(0)	-	-	(0)
Effect of retranslation	(1)	(0)	-	(0)	(1)
At 29 March 2025	920	15	114	1	1,050
Accumulated amortisation/impairment
At 25 March 2023	-	5	0	-	5
Charge for the year	-	2	0	-	2
Disposals	-	(0)	-	-	(0)
Effect of retranslation	-	(0)	-	-	(0)
At 30 March 2024	-	7	0	-	7
Charge for the year	-	2	0	-	2
Disposals	-	(0)	-	-	(0)
Effect of retranslation	-	1	-	-	1
At 29 March 2025	-	10	0	-	10
Net book value at 29 March 2025	920	5	114	1	1,040
Net book value at 30 March 2024	921	6	114	1	1,042

 

At both period ends, no software was being developed that is not yet in use, and the Group was not committed to the purchase of any intangible assets.

 

Impairment review of intangible assets held with indefinite life

 

The Group holds the following assets with indefinite life:

 

	29 March 2025	29 March 2025	30 March 2024	30 March 2024
	Goodwill	Brand	Goodwill	Brand
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
UK B&M	807	99	807	99
UK Heron	88	14	88	14
France B&M	25	-	26	-

 

Not all items in the brand classification have an indefinite life as some are time limited. The brand intangible assets that have been identified as having an indefinite life are designated as such as management believe that these assets will hold their value for an indefinite period of time. Specifically, the B&M and Heron brands represent leading brands in their sectors with significant histories and growth prospects.

 

The B&M France goodwill is held in Euros, with an underlying balance of €30m (2024: €30m).

 

In each case the goodwill and brand assets have been allocated to one group of CGUs, being the store estate within the specific segment to which those assets relate.

 

The Group performs impairment tests at each period end. The impairment test involves assessing the net present value of the expected cash flows in relation to the stores within each CGU according to a number of assumptions to calculate the value-in-use for the group of CGUs.

The key assumptions in assessing the value-in-use as at 29 March 2025 were;

 

The Group's discount rate

This was calculated using an internal CAPM model which includes external estimates of the risk-free rate, cost of debt, equity beta and market risk premium. It is adjusted for which country the segment is in and how large the segment is. The discount rates have increased in the UK and decreased in France during the year, which is reflective of changes in the risk-free rate.

 

The inflation rate for expenses

This is based upon the consumer price index for the relevant country and official reports from the appropriate central bank.

 

Like-for-like sales growth

This is an estimate made by management which encompasses the historical sales trends of the entity and management's assessment of how each segment will perform in the context of the current economic environment.

 

Gross margin

The standing assumption made by management is that forecast gross margin will be similar to that experienced in the prior year, and the result is subsequently sensitised to the gross margin input to demonstrate the robustness of the projection against this assumption.

 

Terminal growth rate

An estimate made by management based upon the expected position of the business at the end of the five-year forecast period in the context of the macro growth level of the economic environment in which that segment operates.

 

The assumptions were as follows:

 

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
Discount rate (B&M UK)	11.3%	10.2%
Discount rate (Heron)	13.1%	11.2%
Discount rate (B&M France)	10.9%	12.4%
Inflation rate for costs (B&M UK and Heron)	2.8%/2.0%*	3.0%/2.0%*
Inflation rate for costs (B&M France)	1.5%	3.0%/2.0%*
Like-for-like sales growth (B&M UK)	2.0%	1.5%/2.0%*
Like-for-like sales growth (Heron)	3.0%/2.0%*	4.0%/2.0%*
Like-for-like sales growth (B&M France)	3.5%	6.5%/2.0%*
Gross margin (all)	±0bps	±0bps
Terminal growth rate (B&M UK)	1.0%	1.0%
Terminal growth rate (Heron)	1.7%	1.7%
Terminal growth rate (B&M France)	1.4%	1.4%

* The first figure reflects the assumption in year one, with the following figure representing the long-term rate.

 

These assumptions are reflected for five years in the CGU forecasts and beyond this a perpetuity calculation is performed using the assumptions made regarding terminal growth rates.

 

In each case, the results of the impairment tests on the continuing operations identified that the value-in-use was in excess of the carrying value of assets within each group of CGUs at the period-end dates. The headroom with the base case assumptions in B&M UK was £3,804m, Heron £99m and B&M France €937m (2024: £4,611m, £256m and €637m respectively).

 

Whilst Heron has a relatively low headroom compared to the other two entities with a decline in total revenue of 0.6% year-on-year, the Directors consider that when measured over a longer time period current performance is favourable, the forecasts have been made using reasonably prudent assumptions and that it is unlikely that a situation will arise where an impairment would be required in that segment.

Such a situation would include like-for-like sales of below -3.5% in year one or a gross margin fall of in excess of 197bps without any mitigating actions taken by management, and without accounting for any new stores to be opened in the period. Further sensitivity data is included below.

 

No other indicators of impairment were noted in the segments and the impairment tests were sensitised with reference to the key assumptions for reasonable possible scenarios.

 

These scenarios specifically included:

·    A drop off in sales or gross margin, modelling flat long-term like-for-like sales and terminal growth rates.

·    Sales prices failing to keep pace with inflation such that the local inflation rates increase 50bps without a corresponding increase in like-for-like sales.

·    A deterioration of the credit environment, leading to a significantly increased cost of capital of 20%.

 

To further quantify the sensitivity, the below tables demonstrate the point at which each impairment test would first fail for changes in each of the key assumptions in year one (except terminal growth rate from the end of year 5 and the discount rate which applies throughout), whilst assuming each other key assumption is held level (e.g. for inflation sensitivity, the like-for-like was not adjusted):

 

	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
B&M UK
Discount rate	30.8%	32.5%
Inflation rate for expenses	60.6%	73.6%
Like-for-like sales	(19.8)%	(23.9)%
Gross margin	(793)bps	(916)bps
Terminal growth rate	(35.3)%	(46.1%)
B&M France
Discount rate	47.0%	53.8%
Inflation rate for expenses	88.9%	81.1%
Like-for-like sales	(23.8)%	(19.0)%
Gross margin	(1,190)bps	(1,063)bps
Terminal growth rate	(40.8)%	(55.9)%
Heron
Discount rate	19.5%	24.1%
Inflation rate for expenses	14.8%	30.7%
Like-for-like sales	(3.5)%	(9.9)%
Gross margin	(197)bps	(418)bps
Terminal growth rate	(6.4)%	(17.7)%

 

14        Property, plant and equipment

 

	Land and buildings	Motor vehicles	Plant, fixtures and equipment	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Cost or valuation
At 25 March 2023	99	26	542	667
Additions	8	13	102	123
Disposals	(0)	(3)	(6)	(9)
Remeasure	(0)	0	0	0
Effect of retranslation	-	(0)	(1)	(1)
At 30 March 2024	107	36	637	780
Additions	6	20	105	131
Disposals	(7)	(14)	(3)	(24)
Effect of retranslation	(0)	(0)	(2)	(2)
At 29 March 2025	106	42	737	885
Accumulated depreciation and impairment charges
At 25 March 2023	17	16	254	287
Charge for the period	5	4	70	79
Disposals	(0)	(2)	(4)	(6)
Remeasure	-	0	0	0
Effect of retranslation	-	(0)	(1)	(1)
At 30 March 2024	22	18	319	359
Charge for the period	5	6	77	88
Disposals	(1)	(5)	(3)	(9)
Effect of retranslation	-	(0)	(1)	(1)
At 29 March 2025	26	19	392	437
Net book value at 29 March 2025	80	23	345	448
Net book value at 30 March 2024	85	18	318	421

 

Under the terms of the loan and notes facilities in place at 29 March 2025, fixed and floating charges were held over £80m of the net book value of land and buildings, £23m of the net book value of motor vehicles and £309m of the net book value of the plant, fixtures and equipment (2024: £85m, £18m and £285m respectively).

 

At the period end, £7m of assets were under construction (2024: £4m).

 

Included within land and buildings is land with a cost of £5m (2024: £6m) which is not depreciated.

 

Capital commitments

 

At the period end, there were £14m of contractual capital commitments not provided within the Group financial statements (2024: £11m).

15        Right-of-use assets

 

	Land and buildings	Motor vehicles	Plant, fixtures and equipment	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Net book value
As at 25 March 2023	1,044	6	6	1,056
Additions	231	2	6	239
Modifications	28	-	-	28
Disposals	(35)	(0)	(0)	(35)
Impairment	(5)	-	-	(5)
Depreciation	(170)	(4)	(3)	(177)
Foreign exchange	(5)	(0)	(0)	(5)
As at 30 March 2024	1,088	4	9	1,101
Additions	228	14	9	251
Modifications	24	-	-	24
Disposals	(26)	(0)	(0)	(26)
Impairment	(3)	-	-	(3)
Depreciation	(176)	(4)	(3)	(183)
Foreign exchange	(5)	(0)	0	(5)
As at 29 March 2025	1,130	14	15	1,159

 

The vast majority of the Group's leases are in relation to the property comprising the store and warehouse network for the business. The other leases recognised are trucks, trailers, company cars, manual handling equipment and various fixtures and fittings. The leases are separately negotiated and no sub-group is considered to be individually significant nor to contain individually significant terms.

 

The Group recognises a lease term appropriate to the business expectation of the term of use for the asset which usually assumes that all extension clauses are taken, and break clauses are not, unless the business considers there is a good reason to recognise otherwise.

 

At the period end, there was one property with a significant unrecognised extension clause for which the Group has full autonomy over exercising in 2040. On the date of recognition of the relevant right-of-use asset, in March 2020, the extension period liability had a net present value of £30m.

 

There are no material covenants imposed by our right-of-use leases.

 

In the year the Group expensed £5m (2024: £4m) in relation to low value leases and <£1m (2024: <£1m) in relation to short-term leases for which the Group applied the practical expedient under IFRS 16.

 

The Group expensed <£1m (2024: <£1m) in relation to variable lease payments. The agreements are ongoing and future payments are expected to be in-line with those expensed recently.

 

The Group received £2m (2024: £2m) in relation to subletting right-of-use assets.

 

The impairments noted in the table above are recorded when the carrying value of a right-of-use asset exceeds the value-in-use of that asset. These arise when we exit a store before the related lease has come to an end, or as the outcome of our annual store impairment review. All impairments are in relation to store leases. No impairments have been reversed in the presented periods.

 

The segmental splits of the impairments were B&M UK £1m, Heron £2m, B&M France <£1m (2024: B&M UK £2m, Heron £2m, B&M France <£1m).

The change in lease liability reconciles to the figures presented in the consolidated statement of cashflows as follows:

 

	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Lease liabilities brought forward	1,357	1,301
Cash
Repayment of the principal in relation to right-of-use assets	(176)	(171)
Payment of interest in relation to right-of-use assets	(77)	(69)
Non-cash
Interest charge	77	69
Effects on lease liability relating to lease additions, modifications and disposals	254	232
Effects of foreign exchange	(5)	(5)
Total cash movement in the year	(253)	(240)
Total non-cash movement in the year	326	296
Movement in the year	73	56
Lease liabilities carried forward	1,430	1,357
Of which current	188	170
Of which non-current	1,242	1,187

 

Discount rates

 

Where, as in most cases, a discount rate implicit to the lease is not available, discount rates are calculated for each lease with reference to the underlying cost of borrowing available to the business and several other factors specific to the asset.

 

We have calculated the weighted average discount rates and sensitivity to a 50bps change in the discount rate to the interest charge as follows:

 

	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
Weighted average discount rate
Property	5.5%	5.2%
Equipment	5.5%	7.3%
All right-of-use assets	5.5%	5.2%
Effect on finance costs with a change of 50bps to the discount rate	£'m	£'m
Property	7	7
Equipment	0	0
All right-of-use assets	7	7

 

Sale and leasebacks

 

During the year, the business has undertaken 11 property and one tranche of trailer sale and leasebacks (2024: none).

The details of the period transactions were as follows:

 

	29 March 2025
	£'m
Consideration received	11
Net book value of the assets disposed	(6)
Costs of sale when specifically recognised	-
Profit per pre-IFRS 16 accounting standards	5
Opening adjustment to the right-of-use asset	(5)
Profit recognised in the statement of comprehensive income	0
Initial right-of-use asset recognised	6
Initial lease liability recognised	(11)

 

The pre-IFRS 16 profit is higher because the provisions of IFRS 16 require that a portion of the profit relating to the sale and leaseback is instead recognised as a reduction in the opening right-of-use asset, and therefore the benefit is released over the term of the contract.

 

16        Inventories

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Goods for resale	883	776

 

Included in the amount above was a net charge of <£1m related to inventory provisions (2024: £1m net charge). In the period to 29 March 2025, £3,479m (2024: £3,449m) was recognised as an expense for inventories and £33m of supplier rebates were received (2024: £31m).

 

17        Trade and other receivables

 

	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Non-current
Other receivables	6	5
Total non-current receivables	6	5
Current
Trade receivables	7	9
Deposits on account	5	3
Provision for impairment	(0)	(2)
Net trade receivables to non-related parties	12	10
Prepayments	37	32
Related party receivables	3	2
Other tax	9	10
Other receivables	18	22
Total current receivables	79	76

 

Trade receivables are stated initially at their fair value and then at amortised cost as reduced by appropriate allowances for estimated irrecoverable amounts. The carrying amount is determined by the Directors to be a reasonable approximation of fair value.

 

There are no individually non-related significant balances held at the current period end. See note 27 in respect of balances held with related parties.

The following table sets out an analysis of provisions for impairment of trade receivables:

Period ended	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Provision for impairment at the start of the period	(2)	(2)
Impairment during the period	(0)	(1)
Utilised/released during the period	2	1
Balance at the period end	(0)	(2)

 

Trade receivables are non-interest-bearing and are generally on terms of 30 days or less.

The following table sets out a maturity analysis of trade receivables, including those which are current:

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Current	5	6
1-30 days past due	1	1
31-90 days past due	1	0
Over 90 days past due	0	2
Balance at the period end	7	9

 

18        Cash and cash equivalents

 

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Cash at bank and in hand	217	182
Cash and cash equivalents	217	182

 

The cash and cash equivalents balance includes £38m (2024: £54m) in respect of credit card receivables.

The Group also holds £150m held in a short-term money market deposit which matures in July 2025 and which is included in the current other financial assets caption, see note 20 (2024: £nil).

As at the period end the Group had available £240m of undrawn committed borrowing facilities (2024: £220m).

19        Trade and other payables

 

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Current
Trade payables	395	380
Other tax and social security payments	81	37
Accruals and deferred income	105	101
Related party trade payables	7	33
Other payables	30	21
Total current payables	618	572

 

Trade payables are generally on 30-day terms and are not interest-bearing. The carrying value of trade payables approximates to their fair value. For further details on the related party trade payables, see note 27.

 

The Group had supply chain financing facilities in place during the year. The facilities are operated by major banking partners with high credit ratings and are limited to £70m (2024: £40m) total exposure at any one time.

 

The exposure at the period end was £12m, out of our total trade payable balance of £395m (2024: £15m, out of £380m) and at the period end date £2m of this balance had been drawn down by our suppliers (2024 : £7m). The average balance over the year was £24m (2024: £14m).

 

The payment due dates on all the supplier finance arrangements are 60 days after the invoice date, which is the same as comparable trade payables for suppliers not on the supplier finance arrangements (2024: same).

 

There were no significant non-cash changes in the carrying amount of financial liabilities subject to supplier finance arrangements.

 

The purpose of the arrangement is to enable our participating suppliers, at their discretion, to draw down against their receivables from the Group prior to their usual due date.

 

From the Group's perspective, the invoices subject to these schemes are treated in the same way as those not subject to these schemes. That is that they are approved under our usual processes (and cannot be drawn down against until they have been approved) and paid on the usual due date, which is in line with the payment terms of our other international suppliers. We do not benefit from the margin charged by the banks for any early draw down, and the banks do not benefit from additional security when compared to the security originally enjoyed by the supplier. There is no impact on potential liquidity risk as the cash flow timings and amounts are unchanged for those invoices in the schemes against those not in these schemes.

 

There would be no impact on the Group if the facilities became unavailable and there are no fees or charges payable by the Group in regard to these arrangements.

 

As these invoices continue to be part of the normal operating cycle of the Group, the schemes do not change the recognition of the invoices subject to them, so they continue to be recognised as trade payables, with the associated cash flows presented within operating cash flows and without affecting the calculation of Group net debt.

20        Other financial assets and liabilities

Other financial assets

 

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Current financial assets at fair value through profit and loss:
Foreign exchange forward contracts	2	2
Current financial assets held at amortised cost:
Money market deposit	150	-
Current financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income:
Foreign exchange forward contracts	1	2
Total current other financial assets	153	4
Non-current financial assets at fair value through profit and loss:
Foreign exchange forward contracts	-	0
Non-current financial assets at fair value through other comprehensive income:
Foreign exchange forward contracts	-	1
Total non-current other financial assets	-	1
Total other financial assets	153	5

 

Financial assets through profit or loss reflect the fair value of those derivatives that are not designated as hedge relationships but are nevertheless intended to reduce the level of risk for expected sales and purchases.

 

The money market deposit reflects £150m placed a 7-month term with a fixed interest rate applied. The funds are due to be returned in July 2025 and are intended to net off the funding required for our £156m high yield bond notes maturing in July 2025, see note 21.

Other financial liabilities

 

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Current financial liabilities at fair value through profit and loss:
Foreign exchange forward contracts	7	4
Current financial liabilities at fair value through other comprehensive income:
Foreign exchange forward contracts	6	6
Total current other financial liabilities	13	10
Non-current financial liabilities at fair value through profit and loss:
Foreign exchange forward contracts	0	0
Non-current financial liabilities at fair value through profit and loss:
Foreign exchange forward contracts	0	0
Total non-current other financial liabilities	0	0
Total other financial liabilities	13	10

 

The other financial liabilities through profit or loss reflect the fair value of those foreign exchange forward contracts that are not designated as hedge relationships but are nevertheless intended to reduce the level of risk for expected sales and purchases.

Fair value hierarchy

The Group uses the following hierarchy for determining and disclosing the fair value of financial instruments by valuation technique:

·     Level 1: quoted (unadjusted) prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

·    Level 2: other techniques for which all inputs which have a significant effect on the recorded fair value are observable, either directly or indirectly.

·   Level 3: techniques which use inputs that have a significant effect on the recorded fair value that are not based on observable market data.

As at the reporting dates, the Group held the following financial instruments carried at fair value on the balance sheet:

	Total	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
29 March 2025
Foreign exchange contracts	(10)	-	(10)	-
30 March 2024
Foreign exchange contracts	(5)	-	(5)	-

 

The financial instruments have been valued by an internal model which is based upon a report from the issuing bank, using a mark to market method. The bank has used various inputs to compute the valuations, which include inter alia the relevant maturity date and strike rates, the current exchange rate, fuel prices and relevant interbank floating interest rate levels.

 

21        Financial liabilities - borrowings

 

The table below relates to the net cash amounts of the borrowing facilities, with the figures inclusive of amortised fees.

 

As at	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Current
High yield bond notes	155	-
Revolving facility bank loan	-	25
B&M France loan facilities	5	4
Total	160	29

 

Non-current
High yield bond notes	742	650
Term facility bank loan	222	221
B&M France loan facilities	13	10
Total	977	881

 

Bond refinancing

 

On 19 November 2024, the Group issued £250m of high yield bond notes, maturing in November 2031 with an interest rate of 6.5%. £150m of cash received from these high yield bond notes was placed on money market deposit and has been ring-fenced for the purpose of repaying the remaining £156m of high yield bond notes (2020).  Transaction fees of £3m were capitalised and are included in the carrying value of these bonds.

 

In the prior period, on 23 November 2023, the Group refinanced part of its existing £400m high yield bond notes (2020). £244m of bonds were redeemed at 98%, resulting in a gain of £5m recognised as a financial gain in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income in that period. The remaining £156m of the high yield bond notes (2020) have a maturity date of July 2025. As part of this refinancing, the Group issued £250m of high yield bond notes, maturing in November 2030 with an interest rate of 8.125%.

 

Transaction fees of £4m were capitalised and are included in the carrying value of these bonds. An interest rate swap derivative was taken at the start of the process to hedge exposure to movements in long-term SONIA rates. This hedge was considered to be fully effective and as such the fair value movements of £8m are included in other comprehensive income and the hedging reserve. The £8m value on the hedging reserve recycles through to the other finance costs caption on the consolidated statement of comprehensive income on a straight-line basis over the term of the bond.

 

The 2020 bonds which were redeemed carried £1m in fees incurred on inception, which were yet to be amortised. These have been released through other finance costs on the consolidated statement of comprehensive income.

 

These transactions included the sale of bonds by related parties, see note 27 for more details.

 

Extension of senior loan facilities

 

In March 2025, the Group and the banking syndicate confirmed the activation of the second and final 1-year extension, extending the maturity date of the banking facilities to March 2030. As previously reported, the first 1-year extension was activated in the prior period.

 

Other borrowings

 

The carrying values given above include fees incurred on refinancing which are to be amortised over the terms of those facilities. More details of these are given below.

 

The Group holds four tranches of high yield bond notes which are each held at amortised cost.

 

The four tranches of bonds were issued in July 2020, November 2021, November 2023 and November 2024, with £4m, £3m, £4m and £3m, respectively, of fees capitalised at inception. The July 2020 bonds were partly repaid in the prior period, resulting in a £1m release of the remaining amortised fees on that portion of the issue.

 

A number of these bonds have been sold or purchased by related parties, see note 27.

 

All other loans are carried at their gross cash amount. The maturities, which only relate to the position as at 29 March 2025, and gross cash amounts of these facilities are included in the table below.

 

	Interest rate %	Maturity	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Revolving facility loan	1.75% + SONIA	N/A	-	25
Term facility bank loan A	2.00% + SONIA	Mar-30	225	225
High yield bond notes (2020)	3.625%	Jul-25	156	156
High yield bond notes (2021)	4.000%	Nov-28	250	250
High yield bond notes (2023)	8.125%	Nov-30	250	250
High yield bond notes (2024)	6.500%	Nov-31	250	-
B&M France - BNP Paribas	3.30-3.97%	Feb-28 to Aug-29	8	5
B&M France - Caisse d'Épargne	2.60%	Nov-29	1	1
B&M France - CIC	0.71-2.75%	Jun-25 to Dec-29	4	1
B&M France - Crédit Agricole	0.39-0.81%	Sep-25 to Jan-28	0	1
B&M France - Crédit Lyonnais	0.69-3.65%	Apr-25 to Mar-29	4	5
Total			1,148	919

The revolving facility of £225m is committed until March 2030.

The term facility bank loans and the high yield bond notes have carrying values which include transaction fees allocated on inception.

All B&M France facilities have gross values in Euros, and the values above have been translated at the period-end rates of €1.1955/£ (2024: €1.1694/£).

The movement in the loan liabilities during the year breaks down as follows:

As at	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Borrowings brought forward	910	954
Cash
Net (repayment)/receipt of Group revolving credit facilities	(25)	25
Repayment of old bank loan facilities	-	(300)
Receipt of new bank loan facilities	-	225
Repayment of corporate bonds	-	(239)
Receipt due to newly issued corporate bonds	250	250
Receipt of loan facilities held in France	9	3
Repayment of loan facilities held in France	(5)	-
Capitalised fees on refinancing	(4)	(7)
Non-cash
Foreign exchange on loan balances	(0)	(0)
Gain on tender	-	(5)
Refinancing fees accrued	-	1
Release of remaining unamortised fees on previous facilities	-	1
Ongoing amortisation of finance fees	2	2
Finance fees on the loss on the derivative swap on refinancing	-	0
Total cash movement in the year	225	(43)
Total non-cash movement in the year	2	(1)
Movement in the year	227	(44)
Borrowings carried forward	1,137	910
Of which current	160	29
Of which non-current	977	881

 

22        Provisions

 

	Property provisions £'m	Other £'m	Total £'m
At 25 March 2023	5	4	9
Provided in the period	2	4	6
Utilised during the period	(1)	(3)	(4)
Released during the period	(0)	(1)	(1)
At 30 March 2024	6	4	10
Provided in the period	2	9	11
Utilised during the period	(0)	(3)	(3)
Released during the period	(1)	(1)	(2)
At 29 March 2025	7	9	16
At 29 March 2025;
Current liabilities	3	9	12
Non-current liabilities	4	-	4
At 30 March 2024;
Current liabilities	2	4	6
Non-current liabilities	4	-	4

 

The property provision relates to the expected future costs on specific leasehold properties. This is inclusive of dilapidations on these properties. The timing in relation to utilisation is dependent upon the individual lease terms.

 

The other provisions caption includes the portion of the Group trading director settlement which has been provided against in the current period (£6m, see note 3) and disputes in relation to our insured liability claims. A prudent amount has been set aside for each insurance claim as per legal advice received by the Group with the claims individually non-significant and averaging £10k per claim (2024: £10k per claim).

 

23        Share capital

 

Allotted, called up and fully paid	Shares	£'m
B&M European Value Retail S.A. ordinary shares of 10p each
As at 25 March 2023	1,001,853,735	100
Release of shares related to employee share options	937,161	0
As at 30 March 2024	1,002,790,896	100
Release of shares related to employee share options	1,030,975	0
As at 29 March 2025	1,003,821,871	100

Ordinary shares

Each ordinary share ranks pari passu with each other ordinary share and each share carries one vote. The Group parent is authorised to issue up to an additional 2,968,400,351 ordinary shares.

 

24        Cash generated from operations

 

Period ended	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Profit before tax	431	498
Adjustments for:
Net interest expense	136	109
Depreciation on property, plant and equipment	88	79
Depreciation on right-of-use assets	183	177
Impairment of right-of-use assets	3	5
Amortisation of intangible assets	2	2
Profit on sale and leasebacks	(0)	-
(Profit)/loss on disposal of property, plant and equipment	(0)	1
Share option expense	3	3
Change in inventories	(109)	(14)
Change in trade and other receivables	(3)	(23)
Change in trade and other payables	41	29
Change in provisions	7	1
Share of (profits)/losses from associates	(1)	1
Loss/(profit) resulting from fair value of financial derivatives	3	(6)
Cash generated from operations	784	862

 

25        Group information and ultimate parent undertaking

The financial results of the Group include the following entities.

 

Company name	Country	Date of incorporation	Percent held within the Group	Principal activity
B&M European Value Retail S.A.	Luxembourg	May 2014	Parent	Holding company
B&M European Value Retail 1 S.à r.l.	Luxembourg	November 2012	100%	Holding company
B&M European Value Retail Holdco 1 Ltd	UK	December 2012	100%	Holding company
B&M European Value Retail Holdco 2 Ltd	UK	December 2012	100%	Holding company
B&M European Value Retail Holdco 3 Ltd	UK	November 2012	100%	Holding company
B&M European Value Retail Holdco 4 Ltd	UK	November 2012	100%	Holding company
B&M European Value Retail 2 S.à r.l.	Luxembourg	September 2012	100%	Holding company
EV Retail Limited	UK	September 1996	100%	Holding company
B&M Retail Limited	UK	March 1978	100%	General retail
Opus Homewares Limited	UK	April 2003	100%	Property management
Heron Food Group Ltd	UK	August 2002	100%	Holding company
Heron Foods Ltd	UK	October 1978	100%	Convenience retail
Cooltrader Ltd	UK	September 2012	100%	Dormant
Heron Properties (Hull) Ltd	UK	February 2003	100%	Dormant
B&M European Value Retail Germany GmbH	Germany	November 2013	100%	Ex-holding company
B&M France SAS	France	November 1977	100%	General retail
Centz N.I. Limited	UK	January 2021	100%	Property management

 

Registered offices

·    The Luxembourg entities are all registered at 3 rue Gabriel Lippmann, L-5365 Munsbach, Luxembourg.

·    Centz N.I. Limited are registered at Murray House, 4 Murray Street, Belfast, United Kingdom, BT1 6DN.

·    The other UK entities are all registered at The Vault, Dakota Drive, Estuary Commerce Park, Speke, Liverpool, L24 8RJ.

·    B&M European Value Retail Germany GmbH are registered at Am Hornberg 6, 29614, Soltau.

·    B&M France are registered at 8 rue du Bois Joli, 63800 Cournon d'Auvergne.

 

Associates

The Group has a 50% interest in Multi-lines International Company Limited, a company incorporated in Hong Kong, and a 22.5% interest in Centz Retail Holdings Limited, a company incorporated in the Republic of Ireland. The share of profit or loss from the associates is included in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income, see note 12.

 

Ultimate parent undertaking

The Directors of the Group consider the parent and the ultimate controlling related party of this Group to be B&M European Value Retail S.A., registered in Luxembourg.

 

 26       Financial risk management

The Group uses various financial instruments, including bank loans, related party loans, finance company loans, cash, equity investment, derivatives and various items, such as trade receivables and trade payables that arise directly from its operations.

 

The main risks arising from the Group's financial instruments are market risk, currency risk, cash flow interest rate risk, credit risk and liquidity risk.  The Directors review and agree policies for managing each of these risks and they are summarised below. 

 

The existence of these financial instruments exposes the Group to a number of financial risks, which are described in more detail below.  In order to manage the Group's exposure to those risks, in particular the Group's exposure to currency risk, the Group enters into forward foreign currency contracts. No transactions in derivatives are undertaken of a speculative nature.

Market risk

Market risk encompasses three types of risk, being currency risk, fair value interest rate risk and commodity price risk. Commodity price risk is not considered material to the business as the Group is able to pass on pricing changes to its customers. 

 

The Group's policies for managing fair value interest rate risk are considered along with those for managing cash flow interest rate risk and are set out in the subsection entitled 'interest rate risk' below.

 

Currency risk

The Group is exposed to translation and transaction foreign exchange risk arising from exchange rate fluctuations on its purchases from overseas suppliers.

 

In relation to translation risk, this is not considered material to the business as amounts owed in foreign currency are short term of up to 30 days and are of a relatively modest nature. Transaction exposures, including those associated with forecast transactions, are hedged when known, principally using forward currency contracts.

 

The majority of the Group's sales are to customers in the UK and France and there is no material currency exposure in this respect. A proportion of the Group's purchases are priced in US Dollars and the Group generally uses forward currency contracts to minimise the risk associated with that exposure.

Approach to hedge accounting

 

As part of the Group's response to currency risk the currency forwards taken out are intended to prudently cover the majority of our stock purchases forecast for that period. However, the Group only hedge accounts for that part of the forward contract that we are reasonably certain will be spent in the forecast period, allowing for potential volatility. Therefore, management always consider the likely volatility for a period and assign a percentage to each tranche of forwards purchased, usually in the range 50-80%, and never more than 80%.

 

Effectiveness of the hedged forward is then assessed against the Group hedge ratio, which has been set by management at 80% as a reasonable guide to the certainty level we expect the hedged portions of our forwards to at least achieve. If they fail, or are expected to fail, to meet this ratio of effectiveness then they are treated as non-hedged items, and immediately expensed through administrative expenses in profit and loss.

 

Ineffectiveness can be caused by exceptional volatility in the market, by the timing of product availability, or the desire to manage short-term company cash flows, for instance, when a large amount of cash is required at relatively short notice.

 

Where a hedged derivative matures efficiently, the fair value is transferred to inventory and subsequently to cost of sales when that item is sold. If the Group did not hedge account, then the difference is that the gain or loss in other comprehensive income would be presented in profit or loss and the assets and liabilities presented under the classification fair value through other comprehensive income would be at fair value through profit or loss.

 

In the period, the Group has had $648m of hedged derivatives mature (2024: $605m). The difference to profit before tax if none of our forwards had been hedge accounted during the year would have been a profit of £2m (2024: £3m loss) and a pre-tax loss in other comprehensive income of £2m (2024: £1m loss).

 

The net effective hedging loss transferred to the cost of inventories in the year was £8m (2024: net loss of £15m). At the period end, the amount of outstanding US Dollar contracts covered by hedge accounting was $698m (2024: $693m), which mature over the next 15 months (2024: 19 months). The change in fair value of the hedging instruments used as the basis for recognising hedge ineffectiveness was £nil (2024: £nil), achieved effectiveness was 100% (2024: 100%).

 

Foreign currency sensitivity

The following table demonstrates the sensitivity to a reasonably possible change in US Dollar period-end exchange rates with all other variables held constant. The impact on the Group's profit before tax and other comprehensive income (net of tax) is largely due to changes in the fair value of our foreign exchange derivatives and revaluation of creditors and deposits held on account with our US Dollar suppliers.

 

As at	Change in USD rate	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
		£'m	£'m
Effect on profit before tax	+2.5%	(10)	(7)
	-2.5%	10	8
Effect on other comprehensive income	+2.5%	(13)	(13)
	-2.5%	14	14

 

Profit before tax and other comprehensive income are not sensitive to the effects of a reasonably possible change in the Euro period-end exchange rates.

 

These calculations have been performed by taking the period-end translation rate used in the accounts and applying the changes noted above. The balance sheet valuations are then directly calculated. The valuation of the foreign exchange derivatives were projected based upon the spot rate changing and all other variables being held equal.

 

Interest rate risk

Interest rate risk is the risk of variability of the Group cash flows due to changes in the interest rate. The Group is exposed to changes in interest rates as a portion of the Group's bank borrowings are subject to a floating rate based on SONIA.

 

The Group's interest rate risk arises mainly from long-term borrowings. Borrowings issued at variable rates expose the Group to cash flow interest rate risk. The Group's exposure to interest rate fluctuations is not considered to be material, however the Group used interest rate swaps to minimise the impact in the prior year, in relation to the final pricing of our November 2023 bond issue.

 

If floating interest rates had been 50 basis points higher or lower throughout the year with all other variables held constant, the effect upon pre-tax profit for the year would have been:

 

As at	Basis point increase / decrease	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
		£'m	£'m
Effect on profit before tax	+50	(1)	(1)
	-50	1	1

 

This sensitivity has been calculated by changing the interest rate for each interest receipt, payment and accrual made by the Group over the period, by the amount specified in the table above, and then calculating the difference that would have resulted.

 

Credit risk

Credit risk is the risk that a counterparty will not meet its obligations under a financial instrument or customer contract, leading to a financial loss.

 

The Group's principal financial assets are cash, money market deposits, derivatives and trade receivables. The credit risks associated with cash, money market deposits and derivatives are limited as the main counterparties are banks with high credit ratings (A long term and A-1 short term (Standard & Poor) or better, (2024: A, A-1 (or better) respectively). The principal credit risk arises therefore from the Group's trade receivables.

 

Credit risk is further limited by the fact that the vast majority of sales transactions are made through the store registers, direct from the customer at the point of purchase, leading to a low trade receivables balance.

In order to manage credit risk, the Directors set limits for customers based on a combination of payment history and third-party credit references. Credit limits are reviewed by the credit controller on a regular basis in conjunction with debt ageing and collection history.  Provisions against bad debts are made where appropriate.

 

Liquidity risk

Any impact on available cash and therefore the liquidity of the Group could have a material effect on the business as a result.

The Group's borrowings are subject to semi-annual banking covenants against which the Group has had significant headroom to date with no anticipated issues based upon forecasts made. Short-term flexibility is achieved via the Group's revolving credit facility. The following table shows the liquidity risk maturity of financial liabilities grouping based on their remaining period at the balance sheet date. The amounts disclosed are the contractual undiscounted cash flows:

 

	Within 1 year	Between 1 and 2 years	Between 2 and 5 years	More than 5 years	Total
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
29 March 2025
Interest-bearing loans	222	64	425	769	1,480
Lease liabilities	265	258	653	627	1,803
Trade payables	402	-	-	-	402
30 March 2024
Interest-bearing loans	82	207	603	286	1,178
Lease liabilities	242	235	606	631	1,714
Trade payables	413	-	-	-	413

 

Fair value

The fair value of our corporate bonds, which are all financial liabilities held at amortised cost, has been determined by using the relevant quoted bid price for those bonds. These differ to the carrying values as shown below.

 

	Fair Value (Level 1)		Carrying Value
As at	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
High yield bond notes (2020)	154	152	155	155
High yield bond notes (2021)	231	231	249	248
High yield bond notes (2023)	260	269	247	247
High yield bond notes (2024)	244	-	247	-

 

The fair value of the other financial assets and liabilities of the Group are not materially different from their carrying value. Refer to the table below. These all represent financial assets and liabilities measured at amortised cost except where stated as measured at fair value through profit and loss or fair value through other comprehensive income.

 

As at Financial assets	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Fair value through profit and loss
Forward foreign exchange contracts	2	2
Fair value through other comprehensive income
Forward foreign exchange contracts	1	3
Loans and receivables
Cash and cash equivalents	217	182
Money market deposit	150	-
Trade receivables	15	12
Other receivables	18	22

 

As at Financial liabilities	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Fair value through profit and loss
Forward foreign exchange contracts	7	4
Fair value through other comprehensive income
Forward foreign exchange contracts	6	6
Amortised cost
Lease liabilities	1,430	1,357
Interest-bearing loans and borrowings (excluding corporate bonds)	239	260
Trade payables	402	413
Other payables	30	21

 

27        Related party transactions

 

The Group has transacted with the following related parties over the periods:

 

Multi-lines International Company Limited, a supplier, and Centz Retail Holdings Limited, a customer, are associates of the Group.

 

Ropley Properties Ltd, Triple Jersey Ltd, TJL UK Ltd, Rani Investments, Fulland Investments Limited, Golden Honest International Investments Limited, Hammond Investments Limited, Joint Sino Investments Limited and Ocean Sense Investments Limited, all landlords of properties occupied by the Group, and Rani 1 Holdings Limited, Rani 2 Holdings Limited and SSA Investments, bondholders and beneficial owners of equipment hired to the Group, are directly or indirectly owned by Bobby Arora, a key member of the management team during the accounting period, his family, or his family trusts (together, the Arora related parties).

 

In the prior period, significant related party transactions occurred, with Simon Arora, SSA Investments, Rani 1 Investments and Rani 2 Investments each selling their full holdings of, respectively, £35m, £13m, £50m and £50m in the 2020 3.625% high yield bond notes as part of the tender exercise that took place in November 2023.

 

The overall position is summarised in the table below:

 

	52 weeks ended 29 March 2025 £'m	53 weeks ended 30 March 2024 £'m
SSA Investments (4.000%, 2021 bonds)	99	99
Total	99	99

 

The expense incurred during the year, and the accrual at the end of the year are shown in the table below:

 

	Expense to 29 March 2025 £'m	Accrual on 29 March 2025 £'m	Expense to 30 March 2024 £'m	Accrual on 30 March 2024 £'m
Simon Arora	-	-	0.8	-
SSA Investments	4.0	1.5	4.3	1.5
Rani 1 Investments	-	-	1.2	-
Rani 2 Investments	-	-	1.2	-
Total	4.0	1.5	7.5	1.5

 

The following table sets out the total amount of trading transactions with related parties included in the statement of comprehensive income:

 

Period ended	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Sales to associates of the Group
Centz Retail Holdings Limited	29	27
Total sales to related parties	29	27

 

Period ended	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Purchases from associates of the Group
Multi-lines International Company Ltd	234.3	259.0
Purchases from parties related to key management personnel
Fulland Investments Limited	0.3	0.3
Golden Honest International Investments Limited	0.2	0.2
Hammond Investments Limited	0.3	0.3
Joint Sino Investments Limited	0.2	0.2
Ocean Sense Investments Limited	0.3	0.2
SSA Investments	-	0.0
Total purchases from related parties	235.6	260.2

 

The IFRS 16 lease figures in relation to these related parties, which are all related to key management personnel, are as follows:

 

	Depreciation charge	Interest charge	Total charge	Right-of-use asset	Lease liability	Net liability
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Period ended 29 March 2025
Rani Investments	0	0	0	0	(0)	(0)
Ropley Properties	2	1	3	6	(8)	(2)
TJL UK Limited	1	0	1	9	(11)	(2)
Triple Jersey Limited	9	4	13	57	(68)	(11)
Total	12	5	17	72	(87)	(15)

 

	Depreciation charge	Interest charge	Total charge	Right-of-use asset	Lease liability	Net liability
	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m	£'m
Period ended 30 March 2024
Rani Investments	0	0	0	0	(0)	(0)
Ropley Properties	2	1	3	7	(10)	(3)
TJL UK Limited	1	0	1	10	(12)	(2)
Triple Jersey Limited	9	3	12	53	(64)	(11)
Total	12	4	16	70	(86)	(16)

 

There was one lease entered into by the Group during the current period with the Arora related parties (2024: one). The total expense on this lease in the period was <£1m (2024: <£1m). There were no conditionally exchanged leases with Arora related parties in the current period with a long stop completion date (2024: none).

 

The following tables set out the total amount of trading balances with related parties outstanding at the period end.

 

As at	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Trade receivables from associates of the Group
Centz Retail Holdings Ltd	2	2
Multi-lines International Company Ltd	1	-
Total related party trade receivables	3	2
As at	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Trade payables to associates of the Group
Multi-lines International Company Ltd	5	32
Trade payables to companies owned by key management personnel
Rani Investments	-	0
Ropley Properties Ltd	0	0
TJL UK Limited	0	1
Triple Jersey Ltd	2	0
Total related party trade payables	7	33

 

Outstanding trade balances at the balance sheet dates are unsecured and interest free and settlement occurs in cash. There have been no guarantees provided or received for any related party trade receivables or payables.

 

The balance with Multi-lines International Company Ltd includes £3m (2024: £14m) held within a supply chain facility. See note 19 for more details.

 

The business has not recorded any impairment of trade receivables relating to amounts owed by related parties as at 29 March 2025 (2024: no impairment). This assessment is undertaken each year through examining the financial position of the related party and the market in which the related party operates.

 

The future lease commitments on the Arora related party properties are:

 

As at	29 March 2025	30 March 2024
	£'m	£'m
Not later than one year	17	16
Later than one year and not later than two years	17	15
Later than two years and not later than five years	40	39
Later than five years	31	33
Total	105	103

 

See note 12 for further information on the Group's associates.

For further details on the transactions with key management personnel, see note 8 and the remuneration report.

 

28        Capital management

For the purpose of the Group's capital management, capital includes issued capital and all other equity reserves attributable to the equity holders of the parent. The primary objective of the Group's capital management is to maximise the shareholder value. 

 

In order to achieve this overall objective, the Group's capital management, amongst other things, aims to ensure that it meets financial covenants attached to the interest-bearing loans and borrowings that define capital structure requirements. Breaches in meeting the financial covenants would permit the bank to immediately call loans and borrowings. There have been no breaches in the financial covenants of any interest-bearing loans and borrowing in the current or prior period.

 

The Group manages its capital structure and makes adjustments in light of changes in economic conditions and the requirements of the financial covenants.

 

To maintain or adjust the capital structure, the Group may adjust the dividend payment to shareholders, return capital to shareholders or issue new shares.

 

The Group uses the following definition of net debt:

 

External interest-bearing loans and borrowings less cash and short-term deposits.

 

The interest-bearing loans figure used is the gross amount of cash borrowed at that time, as opposed to the carrying value under the amortised cost method. The difference between pre and post IFRS 16 net debt is the inclusion of our full lease liability in the latter.

 

Short-term deposits includes any term deposits held with a maturity of less than one year.

 

As at	29 March 2025 £'m	30 March 2024 £'m
Interest-bearing loans and borrowings (note 21)	1,148	919
Less: cash (note 18)	(217)	(182)
Less: short-term deposits (note 20)	(150)	-
Net debt (pre-IFRS 16)	781	737
Total lease liabilities (note 15)	1,430	1,357
Net debt (post-IFRS 16)	2,211	2,094

 

The Group's leverage ratio is defined as net debt divided by EBITDA (note 3) and calculates to be 1.26 on a pre-IFRS 16 basis and 2.55 on a post-IFRS 16 basis (2024: 1.17 and 2.40, respectively).

 

29        Post balance sheet events

 

As announced on 14 November 2024, Bobby Arora retired from his position as a key member of the management team on 31 March 2025.

As announced on 24 February 2025, Alejandro Russo retired from his position as Group CEO on 30 April 2025. On that date the Group appointed Mike Schmidt as interim Group CEO, alongside his role as Group CFO until a permanent appointment is made.

 

The Group announced on 15 May 2025 that Tjeerd Jegen is to be appointed as Group CEO on 16 June 2025.

 

30        Dividends

 

An interim dividend of 5.3 pence per share (£53.2m) was declared in November 2024 and has been paid.

 

A special dividend of 15.0 pence per share (£150.6m), was declared in January 2025 and has been paid.

 

A final dividend of 9.7 pence per share (£97.4m), giving a full year dividend of 15.0 pence per share (£150.6m), is proposed.

 

Relating to the prior year;

 

An interim dividend of 5.1 pence per share (£51.1m) was declared in November 2023 and has been paid.

 

A special dividend of 20.0 pence per share (£200.6m), was declared in January 2024 and has been paid.

 

A final dividend of 9.6 pence per share (£96.3m), giving a full year dividend of 14.7 pence per share (£147.4m), was declared in July 2024 and has been paid.

 

31        Contingent liabilities and guarantees

As at 29 March 2025,  B&M European Value Retail S.A., B&M European Value Retail 1 S.à r.l., B&M European Value Retail 2 S.à r.l., B&M European Value Retail Holdco 1 Ltd, B&M European Value Retail Holdco 2 Ltd, B&M European Value Retail Holdco 3 Ltd, B&M European Value Retail Holdco 4 Ltd, EV Retail Ltd, B&M Retail Ltd, Heron Food Group Ltd and Heron Foods Ltd are all guarantors to both the loan and notes agreements which are formally held within B&M European Value Retail S.A. The amounts outstanding as at the period end were £225m for the loans, with the balance held in B&M European Value Retail Holdco 4 Ltd, and £906m for the notes, with the balance held in B&M European Value Retail S.A.

 

As at 30 March 2024,  B&M European Value Retail S.A., B&M European Value Retail 1 S.à r.l., B&M European Value Retail 2 S.à r.l., B&M European Value Retail Holdco 1 Ltd, B&M European Value Retail Holdco 2 Ltd, B&M European Value Retail Holdco 3 Ltd, B&M European Value Retail Holdco 4 Ltd, EV Retail Ltd, B&M Retail Ltd, Heron Food Group Ltd and Heron Foods Ltd are all guarantors to both the loan and notes agreements which are formally held within B&M European Value Retail S.A. The amounts outstanding as at the period end were £250m for the loans, with the balance held in B&M European Value Retail Holdco 4 Ltd, and £656m for the notes, with the balance held in B&M European Value Retail S.A.

 

32        Directors

The Directors that served during the period were:

 

T Hall (Chair)

A Russo (CEO) (retired 30 April 2025)

M Schmidt (CFO)

P MacKenzie

H Lasry

O Tant

N Shouraboura (appointed 29 May 2024)

E Sutherland (appointed 20 January 2025)

P Bamford (retired 23 July 2024)

R McMillan (retired 23 July 2024)

 

As previously announced, Nadia Shouraboura was appointed as a Non-Executive Director, with effect from 29 May 2024.

 

On 5 June 2024, the Group announced the appointment of Tiffany Hall as the successor to Peter Bamford in the role as Chair of the Board of Directors, with effect from 23 July 2024. On the same date, Peter Bamford retired from the Board of Directors.

 

At the AGM, Ron McMillan announced his retirement, with effect from 23 July 2024.

 

On 17 December 2024, the Group announced the appointment of Euan Sutherland as a Non-Executive Director, with effect from 20 January 2025.

 

On 24 February 2025, the Group announced the retirement of Alejandro Russo from his position as CEO, with effect from 30 April 2025.

 

On 30 April 2025, the Group announced that Mike Schmidt will occupy the role of Interim Group CEO alongside his existing role as Group CFO until a permanent appointment is made.

 

On 15 May 2025, the Group announced that Tjeerd Jegen is to be appointed as Group CEO on 16 June 2025.

 

All directors served for the whole period except where indicated above.