Home Bargains came out ahead of rivals at Christmas, according to exclusive analysis which also points to the challenges faced by the variety discount sector.
Figures from SpendMapper, a sales data company that tracks the real time bank transactions of 150,000 consumers, show spending at Home Bargains was up by 3.8% year on year in December, compared with B&M’s 1.5% growth.
At Poundstretcher, December spend was down by 5.2% and at Poundland it plummeted by 32.6%, according to SpendMapper.
December spend at The Original Factory Shop – which entered administration this week less than a year after its acquisition by PE firm Modella Capital – was down by 39.6%.
Both Home Bargains and B&M have been expanding footprints. Home Bargains latest accounts show its estate grew by 15 stores to 632 in the year to 30 June 2025, while its revenue grew by 7.9%.
B&M’s Q3 results last week showed sales in its UK stores were up 1.9% in the 13 w/e 27 December but down 0.6% on a like-for-like basis.
Poundland’s estate shrank from 800 to 650 stores in 2025, as it shed 2,200 jobs in a restructure under PE owner Gordon Brothers, which bought it in June. A trading update last week showed like-for-likes down by 2.9% in the quarter to 28 December 2025.
Poundstretcher was acquired by US investment firm Fortress in April 2024, and has yet to file annual accounts covering trading since the takeover.
About 1,200 jobs are at risk at The Original Factory Shop, along with its 137, after administrators at Interpath were appointed on Wednesday. Modella said it had “worked intensively in an effort to save the business, but it is now clear that The Original Factory Shop doesn’t have a realistic possibility of trading profitably again”.
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