SPEKE retailer B&M Bargains smashed through the £500m sales barrier last year, as it enjoyed a phenomenal year of growth.

LDP Business can reveal the retailer’s holding company, Firesource, recorded sales of £549m in 2010 – an increase of £122m.

It added £85.9m to its continuing operations, while it also acquired Opus Homewares last August, which added £36.5m to its top line. The company pointed to a “continued focus on its retail standards” for a rise in customers.

Pre-tax profits rose £3.7m to £35.8m, and with no dividends taken, the retained profits boosted shareholders’ funds to £64.5m.

The group paid £40m in cash for Opus Homewares – with assistance from Barclays – with a further £5m deferred.

B&M Bargains’ owners, Simon and Bobby Arora, were also directors of Opus Homewares, but its ownership was spread around extended family and family trusts.

The company has been incorporated into B&M Retail since the year end, but for the period to December 31 continued to trade as a separate Firesource subsidiary.

The move expanded B&M’s reach into Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as increasing its presence in retail parks.

B&M’s aggressive expansion is continuing and a fortnight ago it bought 11 stores from the administrator of collapsed DIY retailer Focus, with 211 staff moving over to the discount retailer.

The retailer had just 21 stores and was breaking even on annual sales of £68m when brothers Simon and Bobby Arora bought the group in 2004. Last year, it had added another 80 stores to take its total to 229.

It now employs more than 7,000 people, including about 600 at its head office in Speke. It moved from Blackpool to a 625,000 sq ft unit, called The Vault, at the Estuary Commerce Park last summer, with the assistance of a £10.85m funding package from Lloyds TSB Corporate.

Firesource’s bank loans increased during the year to £46.8m from £10.5m.

At the year end it had a healthy cash balance of £28m, up £12.4m, and stock levels of £81.9m, almost double the 2009 figure.

B&M Bargains is a discount retailer which stocks a wide range of goods from food and drink to beauty products to furniture.

Joint managing director Simon Arora has previously described the company’s mantra as “if we can’t be the lowest price, we shouldn’t be selling it”.