Guides / B&M profit warnings: what the company said about UK sales and how to read the announcements

B&M profit warnings: what the company said about UK sales and how to read the announcements

A profit warning is a company telling the market, through a regulatory announcement, that profit is likely to be lower than it said before. B&M's own announcements from October 2025 to June 2026 show how to read the guidance range, the UK like-for-like sales figure and the stated causes.

By MarketFrame · Published 15 October 2026 · Updated 15 October 2026

Short answer for B&M: on 7 October 2025 the company set out a full-year profit range, then lowered it twice. The first cut, on 20 October, followed a £7m freight cost error. The second, on 22 January 2026, came from spending more on prices and stock clearance and from weaker results at Heron Foods. Every figure below is taken from those announcements, so you can check each one yourself.

What a profit warning is, in plain English

"Profit warning" is market shorthand. A company tells the market that profit is likely to come in below what it said before. The rules themselves talk about inside information. Under Article 17 of UK MAR, an issuer must "inform the public as soon as possible of inside information which directly concerns that issuer", and must keep that information on its website for at least five years.

FCA guidance in DTR 2.2 adds that no single percentage decides whether information would have a significant effect on a share price. It varies from issuer to issuer. So a warning is a company's own judgement that the news matters to investors. It does not, by itself, tell you how large the problem is or how long it will last.

You can spot one by its first line. Each of B&M's announcements below opens by stating that it contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of UK MAR.

What B&M actually announced: read the company's own text first

These are the five announcements, in order, with what each one said:

7 October 2025, FY26 H1 Trading & Operational Update. B&M UK like-for-like (LFL) sales grew 0.1% in the first half but fell 1.1% in the second quarter, which the company called "weaker than our expectations". It expected first-half adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) of about £198m (H1 FY25: £274m) and a full-year range of £510m to £560m.
20 October 2025, Update on FY26 Guidance and Directorate Change. Its half-year consolidation had found "approximately £7m of overseas freight costs not correctly recognised in cost of goods sold, following an operating system update earlier this year". The full-year range fell to £470m to £520m and the first-half figure to about £191m. The chief financial officer said he would step down, and the board said it would commission a third-party review.
13 November 2025, FY26 Interim Results. First-half adjusted EBITDA was confirmed at £191m, down 30.2%, and the £470m to £520m range was repeated. The company said the freight error "did not impact any audited historical financial information".
22 January 2026, Q3 FY26 Trading Statement. B&M UK LFL sales were down 0.6% for the quarter and up 3.0% in December. The range fell again, to £440m to £475m. The EY review of the freight issue was reported as complete.
3 June 2026, FY26 Preliminary Results. Adjusted EBITDA was £459m (FY25: £620m), which the company described as the midpoint of its current guidance. Adjusted profit before tax was £284m and statutory profit before tax £227m.

Reading the guidance range: adjusted EBITDA and what "adjusted" means

EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. "Pre-IFRS 16" means B&M calculates it before applying the accounting standard for leases. "Adjusted" means certain items are left out. B&M says it excludes adjusting items "by virtue of their size and nature", and its results reconcile adjusted figures to statutory ones in a note headed alternative performance measures. In FY26 those items came to a £57m charge, which is exactly the gap between adjusted profit before tax (£284m) and statutory profit before tax (£227m).

When a range moves, compare each end separately:

On 20 October both ends fell by £40m.
On 22 January the low end fell by £30m and the high end by £45m, so the range narrowed from £50m wide to £35m.

Also check which measure is being guided. B&M says that from FY27 it will guide on adjusted profit before tax instead of adjusted EBITDA. An FY27 figure therefore cannot be lined up against the FY26 ranges above.

UK like-for-like sales: what the phrase measures and what it leaves out

B&M's own definition: LFL revenues "relate to the B&M UK estate only (excluding wholesale revenues)" and include each store's revenue only for the part of the period "at least 14 months after it opened". The 14 months leave out the two-month boost a new store usually gets after opening.

The measure leaves out the following:

New stores. In FY26 B&M UK's total revenue grew 2.9% while LFL sales fell 0.1%. The difference came from store openings.
Other businesses. B&M France and Heron Foods report their own figures.
Profit. LFL is a sales measure. A flat LFL figure can sit alongside a sharp fall in profit, as it did in FY26.

Check the period, too. The January statement gives a quarter figure (minus 0.6%) and a single-month figure (plus 3.0%) in the same paragraph. They measure different things.

Three different causes behind a lower profit outlook: sales, costs and accounting corrections

B&M's warnings show all three types:

Sales shortfall. On 7 October the company said its first-half profit was "driven primarily by the LFL performance of B&M UK and lower trading gross margins".
Cost and investment choices. On 22 January it blamed "ongoing investments in pricing and clearance, improvements in stock quality and the financial underperformance of Heron Foods". These are choices the company made, alongside a weaker business.
A recording error. On 20 October about £7m of freight costs had not been booked in cost of goods sold. The company said later that audited historical accounts were unaffected.

One lesson here: a £7m error led to a £40m cut at each end of the full-year range. B&M explained that it had revised its outlook "based on revised second-quarter margin run rates". The error changed its view of the margins it was earning, and that view carried through to the rest of the year. Don't assume the size of the cause equals the size of the cut. Read the sentence that links them.

Why the date and time of an announcement matters

Each announcement is a snapshot. The 7 October figure of about £198m was given "subject to any final consolidation or audit review adjustments", and that is exactly where the change came from 13 days later. The 20 October text says it is "updating its announcement of 7 October 2025", so the earlier range stopped being the company's view that day.

When you read an article, check which announcement it relies on. A piece written on 21 October and one written on 23 January can both be accurate and still quote different ranges.

Why news tone differs from the announcement itself

Headlines often lead with the share-price fall or the departing finance chief. The announcement leads with figures, causes and definitions. Both are real. They answer different questions.

MarketFrame scores the tone of each day's UK business news on FTSE 100 companies, from -10 (clearly bad news for the company) to +10 (clearly good). Its archive starts on 30 September 2026 and it has no B&M page, so it holds no scores for these announcements. News tone is not a share-price forecast. To see how coverage of other retailers reads day by day, see the retail sector page, the daily overviews or the FTSE news hub.

A five-point checklist for reading any profit warning

Find the original announcement, its date and its RNS number.
Write down the old range and the new range, end by end, and the exact measure (adjusted EBITDA, adjusted profit before tax).
Read the footnote that defines any sales measure, such as like-for-like, and note the period it covers.
Sort the stated cause: sales, costs or investment, or an accounting or recording error. There may be more than one.
Check whether a later announcement has updated or replaced it.

Where to find B&M's announcements and how to check a figure yourself

B&M's corporate site is bandmretail.com (the shop site, bmstores.co.uk, does not host investor material). Its results and presentations page has the announcements as PDFs. The FCA's National Storage Mechanism at data.fca.org.uk keeps the regulated announcements too, each with its RNS number and date.

To check a number, open the announcement, find the figure, then find the footnote or note that defines it. If a trading update uses a term the results document defines more fully, read both.

This page does not say which index B&M belongs to, because membership changes at each quarterly review. FTSE Russell publishes the official constituent lists. The guides on the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 explain how membership works. For another worked example built from a company's own announcements, see how to read the Taylor Wimpey dividend announcements.

Questions people ask

What is a profit warning and what does it mean?

It is market shorthand for an announcement in which a company says profit is likely to be lower than it previously guided. It tells you the company has revised its own outlook. The size of the change and the reason for it are in the announcement text, so read that before any headline.

What does UK like-for-like sales mean in a trading update?

It is a sales measure each company defines for itself. B&M's version covers the B&M UK estate only, excludes wholesale revenue, and counts a store only for the part of the period at least 14 months after it opened. Other retailers use different rules, so always read the footnote.

Where can I read B&M's own announcements?

On the results and presentations page of B&M's investor site, bandmretail.com, and on the FCA's National Storage Mechanism at data.fca.org.uk, which keeps the regulated announcements with their RNS numbers and dates.

Is a profit warning the same as a company being in financial trouble?

Not necessarily. A warning means expected profit is lower than earlier guidance, and a lower profit can still be a profit: B&M's FY26 results reported statutory profit before tax of £227m. Whether a company is under financial strain is a separate question, and the balance sheet, debt and cash flow sections of the full results are where to look.

Does the tone of news about a profit warning predict the share price?

No. News tone describes how coverage reads on a given day. It is not a share-price forecast, and this page gives no view on B&M's shares.