B&M sells Germany unit for £11m

BRITISH discount retailer B&M European Value Retail said on Wednesday (11) it has agreed the sale of its loss-making German business, Jawoll, to a consortium led by AC Curtis Salta for €12.5 million (£11m).

Last November, B&M, a general goods retailer selling everything from furniture to electricals to food, wrote down the value of the 89 Jawoll stores and put it under review.

Jawoll made a loss of £15.4m in the year to March 31 2019.

AC Curtis Salta is funded by investment company Adiuva Capital.

The purchasing consortium also includes Wiebke Stern, Sebastian Dorin, Alexander Dorin, STIWEC and Jalogy Beteiligungs.

Simon Arora led B&M trades from around 650 stores in the UK and around 100 in France, trading as Babou.

Shares in Liverpool-based group, down 25 per cent so far this year, closed Tuesday (10) at 306 pence, valuing the business at £3.1bn.

The latest news also came after B&M put Jawoll under review last November when poor trading in its German business was largely attributed to the 70.5 per cent plunge in B&M’s overall pre-tax loss to £32.2m.

Arora, 49, started his business in 1995 supplying low price products from Asia to retailers before acquiring B&M in 2004.

Jawoll, which was acquired by the B&M in 2014.

B&M makes 86 per cent of its sales from its British stores, where sales rose by 13.8 per cent last year.