Former Tesco boss and retail veteran Sir Terry Leahy has announced his departure from the role as chairman of discount store chain B&M, as it reveals strong financial results.
Although the reason for Leahy’s departure has not yet been established, he will be replaced by SuperGroup chairman Peter Bamford.
“Peter brings extensive senior and board-level experience in public companies, particularly in consumer and retail businesses,” B&M stated.
The news comes amid the retailer’s half-year results, posting a 17.8 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £87 million alongside a gross profit boost of 19.8 per cent to £383 million.
UK like-for-like sales also jumped 7.5 per cent while group revenues grew 21.7 per cent to £1.3 billion.
This was aided by 20 new UK store openings and seven new Jawoll stores in Germany.
Revenues at B&M have more than doubled under Leahy’s watch, rising from £993 million to around £2.7 billion in the five years he has held the position.
B&M’s store portfolio has also nearly tripled to 893 stores under Leahy, who is credited with bringing the retailer onto the stock market three years ago.
The retailer stated that the acquisition of Heron Foods has helped provide “an excellent runway of growth” in the coming months.
“In the coming months we note that we face the challenge of trading against last year’s exceptionally strong Christmas performance,” it added.
“But given the robust trading momentum in the business, which is being driven by a steady flow of new customers into our stores and the further improvements we make to the B&M customer offer, particularly in range, pricing and retail standards, we are confident about our plans for peak trading this year.”
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