Home retailer B&M has appointed Mike Schmidt as interim chief executive following the retirement of Alex Russo.

Schmidt is currently the company’s chief financial officer and he will continue in this role along with his new duties.

He joined the firm in 2022 from furniture retailer DFS where he spent eight years working in various roles including chief financial officer. Schmidt has also worked at UBS and investment bank Nomura.

Russo announced his intention to retire from the role of group chief executive and the director of the company in February.

He joined B&M in 2020 as chief financial officer and previously held senior roles at Walmart and Boots.

B&B said that the board is making progress in the search for a new chief executive and will provide an update in due course.

Earlier this month, B&M announced that group revenues for this year had increased by 3.7 per cent to £5.6 billion compared with the previous year.

This was driven by positive sale in France offsetting negative performance in B&M UK and Heron foods.

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