Sales slumped by almost 20% at budget retailer B&M during the first five weeks of its new financial year, it has been revealed.
The Liverpool-headquartered group, which also owns Heron Foods, came up against tough comparatives from a year ago during the period.
The listed company added that its like-for-like sales tumbled 9.1% to £1.161bn across its 705 UK stores in the three months to June 25.
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It said the sales declines pared back to 1.6% in the following eight weeks after the drop of 19.1% and the group stuck by its full-year forecasts for underlying earnings of between £550m and £600m.
B&M, which also has stores across France, said total group sales fell 2.2% to £1.2bn in the quarter on a constant currency basis.
The group said Heron Foods "performed consistently well throughout the quarter, ahead of internal expectations" while France delivered strong like-for-like revenue growth, with gardening and leisure "performing particularly well".
B&M's UK sales fell from £1.019bn to £957m while Heron Foods increased from £102m to £113m.
Sales in France rose from £68m to £91m and the number of stores run by the group went from 1,097 to 1,125.
