Fast-growing British discounter B&M European Value Retail said on Tuesday it is undertaking a review of its German unit Jawoll to determine the future of the business.
The group, a general goods retailer selling anything from furniture to electricals to food, said Jawoll saw profit decline in its first half to September 29 due to distribution issues and weak sales.
Profit Decline
B&M's overall pretax profit fell 70.5% to £32.2 million (€37.5 million), which included an impairment charge of £59.5 million (€69.2 million) relating to Jawoll.
Group revenue increased 12.4% to £1.76 billion (€2.05 billion).
The group trades from 645 stores in the UK operating under the B&M brand and 290 stores under the Heron Foods and B&M Express brands. It also has 98 stores in Germany primarily operating under the Jawoll brand and 99 stores in France, trading at Babou.
Sales Performance
First half like-for-like sales at the B&M UK stores business rose 3.7%.
"We have delivered a solid overall first half performance driven by our core B&M UK stores business, which constitutes 86% of Group sales," commented Simon Arora, the group's chief executive.
"Our existing stores performed consistently well through the last two quarters, generating half year LFL of 3.7%. The current crop of new stores also achieved especially strong results. The core business has made a solid start to the second half of the financial year. Heron Foods has continued to grow in the UK and we remain very pleased with the overall progress of that business."
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
