The £600 million takeover of Poundland last summer, little more than two years after the company came to the stock market, has heightened attention on the retail discount sector, even if it is doubtful that many City analysts actually go into the stores that often.
Little good has this done B&M European Value Retail, which itself came to the market in 2014. The shares again managed to push ahead of their 270p flotation price, rising 26¼p to 303¼p on the back of strong Christmas trading that may turn out, given Next’s performance, to be among the best in the sector over the holiday.
Like-for-like sales in the UK were up by 8.4 per cent, but take out some special factors and they were ahead