Shares tumble at budget chain B&M with boss Alex Russo set to stand down after just two-and-a-half years
By JUSTINE NOBLE
Updated:
B&M shares slid after it warned of lower profits and said its boss is leaving after just two-and-a-half years.
In the latest sign of the crisis gripping the High Street, the budget store chain said it now expects profits of between £605million and £625million this year having previously eyed as much as £650million.
Warning of an ‘uncertain economic outlook’, the FTSE 250 firm also revealed chief executive Alex Russo will ‘retire’ at the end of April after only taking the job in September 2022.
Shares fell 2.1 per cent, or 6.1p, to 284.8p yesterday. The stock has halved in value since peaking in December 2023.
Russ Mould, investment director at broker AJ Bell, said: ‘Time has run out for Alex Russo to get B&M back on track.
‘He was meant to have steered the discount retailer to greater things, yet a share price decline over those two and a half years tells a different story.
Exit: B&M chief exec Alex Russo (pictured) will ‘retire’ at the end of April after only taking the job in September 2022
‘The market has lost faith in the business amid a slowdown in growth over multiple consecutive quarters.
‘Someone had to take the blame and it’s inevitable that the chief executive falls on their sword.
‘Russo’s exit is framed as retirement, yet the lack of a successor and a mere two-month lead time until departure imply a different story.’
The turmoil at B&M comes as the High Street prepares for a barrage of cost increases this spring following the Budget.
This includes Rachel Reeves’ £25billion rise in National Insurance contributions and a jump in the minimum wage as well as higher business rates bills.
B&M said the downgrade to its profit outlook ‘reflects the current trading performance of the business, an uncertain economic outlook and the potential impact of exchange rate volatility’.
Nonetheless, Russo said it was ‘professionally rewarding’ to ‘retire leaving growing business with great potential in both UK and France’.
The value retailer said his two-and-a-half-year stint as chief executive will end on April 30 and it is in the process of hiring a replacement.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.
This İs Money
