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Discount chain B&M European Value Retail SA is being sued for almost £14 million over claims it stopped purchasing products from a supplier as ‘retaliation’ for an investment bid breaking down, High Court documents show. The Skinny Food Co, which began legal action in February, is seeking at least £13.8 million in damages for alleged breaches by B&M of agreements between the two. In court documents, seen by the Press Association, lawyers for Skinny said it was ‘de-listed’ as one of B&M’s suppliers in 2021 and 2025, meaning B&M either stopped buying Skinny’s products or significantly reduced how much it bought, in breach of rules. The firm continued that the 2021 de-listing followed the breakdown of an investment in Skinny by the Arora family, which ran B&M at the time, with one of the family members, Robin Arora, claiming he could ‘ruin’ Skinny. B&M, which is yet to provide a defence to the claim, has been approached for comment. In court documents, George Spalton KC, for Skinny, said: ‘B&M’s decision to de-list Skinny was motivated at least by the breakdown of the negotiations between (Arora) and Skinny in respect of the proposed investment by the Arora family in Skinny, and by (Arora’s) desire to make good his threat to ’ruin’ Skinny.’ The barrister said Skinny supplied B&M with more than 50 products from late 2020, including spreads, sauces, ready meals and cocktails. He continued that B&M ‘repeatedly assured’ Skinny that it could ‘have confidence in B&M as a trading partner’, asked for ‘exclusivity in respect of certain product lines’ and ‘sought to dissuade Skinny from dealing with B&M’s competitors’. The barrister said this led Skinny to stop ‘pursuing opportunities’ with B&M’s rival, Home Bargains, and to buy machinery worth more than £235,000 solely to serve anticipated demand from B&M for its products. In 2021, Arora a director of B&M until 2022 told Skinny’s directors that the family was keen to invest in the company. It is claimed that in one message, Arora told Skinny’s directors that he could not ‘guarantee continued B&M support’ if the investment did not proceed, which Spalton said were ‘express threats, alternatively implicit threats’ that there would be ‘adverse commercial consequences’ for Skinny if the investment did not go through. Arora is also claimed to have said in August 2021 that he was ‘the only person that can make or break your business’. After negotiations broke down, the investment was called off in September 2021 by Skinny’s directors, which led Arora to treat it ‘with a degree of contempt’, Spalton said. He continued that at around the same time, B&M ‘significantly reduced the volume and value’ of orders it placed with Skinny, from a value of £10.7 million in the year to August 31 2021 to around £3.2 million the following year. He also said that B&M did not provide notice of or reasons for its 2021 decision to ‘de-list’ Skinny, in breach of rules, and that the move was ‘retaliation for the negotiations in respect of the Arora family investment having broken down’. In March 2022, Arora is also alleged to have said that ‘he was able to ruin Skinny’s business if he wanted to’, and that Skinny had ‘really f***** yourselves over at B&M’. B&M stopped listing new Skinny products from 2023, and in June 2025, gave the firm written notice that it would ‘de-list’ the remaining products it sold and stop placing orders in December 2025. Spalton said that this was caused by B&M’s ‘desire to punish Skinny’ for ‘making and pursuing’ complaints about rule breaches, and that the two de-listings had caused Skinny to suffer ‘loss and damage’ amounting to at least £16.85 million. A hearing in the claim is yet to take place. B&M shares were 0.8% lower at 183.50 pence each on Thursday morning in London. By Callum Parke, Press Association Law Reporter Press Association: Finance source: PA Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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