// B&M promotes finance boss Alex Russo to CEO
// Russo has held senior leadership roles at Asda, Tesco, Wilko and Kingfisher
B&M has promoted its chief financial officer Alex Russo to the role of chief executive, following Simon Arora’s decision to retire.
Russo has held senior leadership positions at retailers such as Asda, Tesco and Kingfisher. He also worked a finance role at Wilko and joined B&M in October 2020.
Arora struck a cautious note as he signed off as CEO and flagged that profits would be lower next year at between £550million and £600million on an adjusted EBITDA basis.
In its full-year to 26 March, group adjusted EBITDA dipped slightly from £626million to £619million.
Arora said: “The retail industry is facing inflationary pressures whilst our customers are having to cope with a significant increase in the cost of living, making spending behaviour in the year ahead difficult to predict.
“However, we have seen before that during such times customers will increasingly seek out value for money, and B&M is ideally placed to serve those needs. ”
READ MORE: B&M value drops as CEO Simon Arora sells 40 million shares
Over the past year, group revenues decreased by 2.7% on the prior year to £4.6billion but increased 22.5% on a two-year basis versus FY20.
In the UK, sales fell by 4.1% year-on-year, and like-for-like plunged 9%. However, on a two-year basis, like-for-likes were up 13% with sales densities significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels due to retention of new customers.
Gross margin increased slightly year-on-year in the core B&M UK business, driven by strong performance across general merchandise and a high sell-through rate on seasonal ranges leading to limited markdown activity.
Arora said: “The strength and resilience of our business model has enabled us to execute our plans well and continue offering compelling value for money to customers. As a result, we have sustained the step up in sales and profit compared to pre-pandemic levels.
“It has been an honour to lead B&M and together build such a large and popular retailer. I believe that Alex is uniquely well placed to continue B&M’s success and I will work hard to ensure a smooth transition.”
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