Despite the decline, B&M’s guidance for the full year remains unchanged thanks to an improving trend during the quarter.

B&M has posted a 2.2% fall in first quarter group revenues, and added that the business was impacted by strong comparative figures from 2021 when the UK was still affected by pandemic measures.

During the 13 week period from March 27th to June 25th, group revenue declined on a constant currency basis from £1.189b in 2021 to £1.161b, but the figures also revealed an improving trend during the quarter.

The core B&M UK business saw one-year like-for-like revenue drop 9.1% for the quarter overall, from £1.019b to £957m.

Due to exceptionally high sales in April 2021, the group said that over the five week trading period of April 2022, one-year like for like revenues were down 19.1%, driven by elevated sales in the prior year. Over the subsequent eight week trading period covering May and June, one-year like for like revenues fell 1.6%.

Last week the business launched a trial home delivery service from 1,000 of its stores whiich will initially offer a limited range of heavier or bulkier merchandise including toys.