Discount retailer B&M is gearing up for a further push into southern England by snapping up stores from struggling rivals and ploughing £100m into a new distribution centre.
Chief executive Simon Arora said profit in the southeast was oustripping the company average, prompting it to build a 1m sq ft facility in Bedford to drive expansion.
“We are proving increasingly more popular in the south,” Arora said. “Our 69 sites in the southeast delivered £326m of sales and have generated more profit than the company average.
