B&M says early goodbye to last of its Arora brothers

The last member of the billionaire Arora family who helped grow B&M into one of the most successful British retailers is to exit the discount chain next year.
The FTSE 100 company announced that Bobby Arora, 52, will step down as trading director in 2025, a year earlier than planned, having held the role for almost 20 years. He had previously agreed a £16 million pay deal to stay until 2026.
Arora and his brothers Simon and Robin bought B&M in 2004 for £525,000 when it was a struggling northern chain of 21 stores and transformed it into a retail giant with more than 1,000 branches across the UK and France.
Simon Arora, 54, stepped down as chief executive of B&M in September 2022, having led the company for 17 years. The youngest brother, Robin, 39, had also been involved with the retailer as a director, but the company said he no longer has an active role. All three brothers remain shareholders in the company.
The Arora brothers grew up in Sale, Manchester, and founded a successful wholesale business, Orient Sourcing, in the 1990s.
Speaking about his relationship with Bobby in an interview with The Guardian in 2022, Simon said: “There’s a Punjabi saying from our childhood that we both believe in: ‘One plus one equals 11’.
“Bobby has been shoulder to shoulder with me throughout my business career and I do believe we have both been more effective by virtue of that relationship.”
B&M said that Gareth Bilton would take over as trading director in March 2025. Bilton is currently the group’s retail director and has worked at B&M for more than 25 years.
In its interim results on Thursday, B&M said revenues at the group had climbed to £2.64 billion in the six months to September 28, up 3.7 per cent from the same period last year.
The discount retailer, which is based in Liverpool and sells food, stationery, furniture and garden equipment, posted adjusted earnings of £274 million in the six months to September, up 2 per cent from the first half of the previous financial year.
Like-for-like sales in the second quarter slipped 1.9 per cent, an improvement from a 5.1 per cent decline in the first quarter when wet weather weighed on sales.
Alex Russo, chief executive of B&M, said it would not respond to the increase in employers’ national insurance costs by raising prices. “We will do the opposite, we will continue to drive prices down for the consumer and we will continue to buy in volume,” he said.
The group said that its home department had performed well during the second quarter as it grew volumes and market share.
B&M European Value Retail, which was founded in 1978, has 764 B&M shops and 338 Heron Foods stores in Britain, as well as 129 B&M-branded shops in France.
The chain was one of the few pandemic winners as it benefited from consumers cutting back on non-essential items. That momentum has continued as a squeeze on living costs has driven customers to continue to seek out affordable goods.
The group said it was continuing with its expansion plans in both the UK and France. During the first half of the year it opened 39 new stores, including 30 B&M shops across Britain. It has a long-term target of 1,200 B&M stores in the UK.
Russo said the group’s expansion would be carried out in a gradual and disciplined way. “We are going to do it with order, we are not in the business of rushing store openings,” he said.
Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, labelled the store target “fanciful”. He said: “B&M has been a bit of a rags to riches story, one that many shareholders, including its now departed from the firm’s founders, did very well with. However, the engine has cooled materially and this first-half performance fulfils all of our prior apprehensions.”
Shares in B&M closed up 19p, or 5 per cent, at 398¾p.