Home improvement giant Kingfisher, which owns B&Q in the UK and Castorama France, has reported adjusted profits of £528mn as total group sales hit £12.8bn. This was down -0.8%, with LFL falling 1.7%.
While UK LFL grew by 0.2%, the group performance was impacted by a 6.2% sales decline in France. Castorama France’s restructuring has therefore been accelerated, with works on 24 low-performing stores due to be completed by the end of FY 25/26.
Kingfisher’s introduction of marketplace offerings across all its brands has now been completed, and very well received. There is now over 2.1m products now on B&Q marketplace.
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Screwfix Sprint, the one-hour delivery service, also saw sales grow by over 40% and it now covers 60% of UK postcodes.
The DIY firm was further boosted by its trade brands. TradePoint LFL increased by 6.4%, with TradePoint now representing 23.4% of B&Q’s sales. TradePoint’s 44 dedicated sales partners have driven a c.5% uplift in trade customer sales compared to stores without sales partners.
Additionally, the trade loyalty programmes is now active in all markets, with membership growing by 30% across the year.
“For the first time in over six years, we grew our market share in all key regions. We delivered profit and free cash flow in line with or ahead of our initial guidance, with strong delivery against our strategic objectives,” said Thierry Garnier, chief executive officer, Kingfisher.
“Our ecommerce marketplaces are now live in the UK & Ireland, France, Poland and Iberia, and growing strongly with total GMV up 62%. Our trade sales penetration, excluding Screwfix, reached 17.9% in January, up 4.9%pts, with rapid progress being made in France and Poland.
“Looking to the year ahead, the recent government budgets in the UK and France have raised costs for retailers and impacted consumer sentiment in the near term. With this in mind, we remain focused on what is in our control – progressing our strategic objectives at pace to deliver further market share gains, and continuing to manage gross margin, costs and cash effectively. Kingfisher is in its best operational shape for years, and we remain confident about the growth opportunities in our business.”
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