B&M Retail Ltd has been fined £2m after Birmingham City Council successfully prosecuted the retailer for food hygiene offences at three Birmingham stores.

The offences, uncovered by the council's Environmental Health Service between November 2024 and October 2025, related to branches at St Andrews Retail Park, Priory Square Shopping Centre and The Fort Shopping Park.

Inspections found extensive evidence of mouse activity at all three sites, including droppings, gnawed food products, and urine contamination on packaging and shelving. At The Fort Shopping Park, droppings were found near children's toys on display.

Each store was hit with a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice and closed immediately due to the risk to public health.

B&M Retail Ltd pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates' Court. At sentencing on 13 July 2026, the company was ordered to pay a £2m fine, £18,104 in prosecution costs, and a £2,000 victim surcharge – all within 28 days.

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Cllr Sam Forsyth, chair of the Licensing and Public Protection Committee, said residents rightly expect businesses to maintain high standards and provide safe environments.

‘The health and wellbeing of Birmingham residents will always come first, and the conditions identified by our Environmental Health officers across these stores were unacceptable and required immediate intervention to protect the public,’ he added.

Food Safety Manager Claire Lucas, from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, added: 'This case highlights the potentially serious consequences when food hygiene standards are not maintained, and pest control measures fail.

'Regardless of whether a business operates a single premises or hundreds of sites across the country, there is a responsibility to ensure food is stored, handled and sold in a way that protects customers from harm.'

Responding to the prosecution, a spokesperson for the retailer said: 'We are deeply sorry for the failings identified in the three stores and have taken full responsibility.

'While food safety and pest-control procedures were in place in each store, those procedures were not followed. That should not have happened. We recognise that these failures were unacceptable and that we must learn from them.'

'Since identifying the issues in question, we have taken comprehensive action to strengthen controls across our business,' they added.