Following today’s release of B&M’s figures for the 26 weeks ending 27 September 2025; Emily Scott, associate retail analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view: “B&M’s latest results show a business under real strain, with group adjusted EBITDA for the first half falling sharply to £198m from £274m last year. As a result, its share price fell over 10% in early trading this morning, before recovering slightly. The new CEO, Tjeerd Jegen, has responded with a turnaround plan, “Back to B&M Basics”, aimed at restoring the UK arm, where like-for-like sales continue to disappoint. The plan focuses on sharper pricing on key FMCG lines, stripping back bloated ranges and fixing poor on-shelf availability. The availability issue has been a major failing, with best-seller availability running at 86% against an industry benchmark of 98%. For a retailer built on driving high volumes at value price points, this operational weakness has directly hit sales and margins by eroding customer trust and repeat visits.
“The measures are designed to restore momentum, but whether it will be enough remains an open question. B&M had lost its price leadership in the market and so cutting prices on 35% of key value items should boost shopper perceptions and is a necessary step albeit a costly one. Slimming down ranges and empowering store managers to bring more dynamism to promotions should help inject energy back into the customer experience but execution across hundreds of stores will be the real test. The plan has the right priorities, but with earnings guidance cut again, B&M must show rapid improvements in availability and consistent like-for-like growth in the second half to convince investors that this turnaround can succeed.
“Perfomance was much brighter in France, with revenue up 13.4% and like-for-like sales rising 2.6%. The conversion of Babou stores into the B&M format has given the business a scalable platform, and the French consumer base is responding well to the value-led offer. With the store estate still relatively small (124 stores vs 741 in the UK), there’s meaningful headroom for expansion in suburban and regional markets where discount penetration is lower. The French operation is still too small to offset the weakness in the UK, however, leaning harder into France and expanding strategically (ensuring each site is set up to deliver strong sales) B&M could turn the French side of the business into a genuine growth engine for the group.”
